Winter in Yangji: Presented in Cannes, this warm and intimate odyssey in snowy China will leave you in awe

Portrait of a frozen young man

Haofeng (Liu Haoran), who works in finance in Shanghai, travels to the small town of Yangji to attend a wedding. A depressed and lonely young man deliberately ignores phone calls from his therapy center.

Soon after his arrival, Haofeng meets Nana (Zhou Dongyu, recently seen in Better Days ), a charming tour guide, and decides to join her group to explore the snowy region that straddles the Korean border. A young woman introduces him to Xiao (Chuxiao Qu), her disillusioned chef friend, and the three form a strong friendship.

Like melting snow, the unexpected meeting of these three teenagers, whose lives seemed frozen until then, will warm their hearts and reveal their dreams, desires and secrets trapped in the ice…

A wonder of poetry signed by a skinned child

Anthony Chen made his regular return to the Cannes Film Festival this year to present his latest film, Winter in the Yangtze. Awarded a Special Mention in 2007 for his short film Ah Ma, awarded the Golden Camera prize in 2013 for Ilo Ilo, the Singaporean director is one of the “children” of Cannes: a generation of talented filmmakers who have been recognized internationally. A prestigious festival.

So this year he returned to familiar territory with much fanfare, despite the delicacy of his latest feature film. like snow white Winter in Yangzhi It crystallizes the beauty of winter, the fragility of a fleeting human existence composed of moments of silence and immobility.

The ubiquitous ice is a metaphor for the younger generation frozen, seemingly stuck in powder snow, unable to see their future beyond the blizzard that hinders them. “When I decided to shoot the film in winter– says Anthony Chen I thought we should make this a real winter movie, so we went to the north, one of the coldest places in China. Winter in Yangji was born out of a strong desire and a very spontaneous desire, after two years at home during the pandemic, where I went through a real existential crisis. I wanted to capture the spirit of the current generation of young Chinese people that I have heard so much about. It was a leap of faith for all of us. Wild adventure in cold and cold winter. And for me, a love letter to young Chinese.”

Through his hauntingly optimistic human warmth that makes you want to grab his characters and hug them tenderly, Winter in Yangzhi manages to shine the spring sun in the darkness of the blizzard. The wonder of poetry and humanity, in the cinema from November 22.