Taking Father Home (2005)
Fiction / Color / 100 minutes

Xuyun’s trip to the city in search of his father serves to document his initiation into adulthood. The background is the conflict between urban and country life, tradition and the new generations, development and its victims. The couple of ducks that Xuyun carries in his back are the precarious symbol for a search that the gallery of surrogates of his father can’t terminate, having enough problems by themselves. Xuyun wanders the streets of Zigong only to find chance, violence and loneliness.

Shot with a borrowed camera and the help of lots of friends, this first feature of Ying Liang’s already presents the elements that will confirm his unique style: human stories in a sober, at times documentary-like style; long takes that never constrain but rather give ample space to the characters and the ubiquitous voice-over of press and government statements.

The Other Half (2006)
Fiction / Color / 111 minutes

When Xiao Fen gets a position as clerk of a team of lawyers, the audience of The Other Half witnesses the stories of a wide range of testimonies asking for help in their lawsuits. The stunning performances of these characters, with the full force of the oral tale (in the line of Jia Zhangke’s 24 City), depict the situation in the small town of Zigong, where hope is to flee to the coastal areas, and staying back means degradation.

The other half of many of these characters, an incredible mix of professional and non-professional actors, is revealed too often to be made of cynicism and cruelty. Particularly interesting is the examination of women’s condition, as many female voices hopelessly confront an anonymous lawyer’s camera to find no solution.

Good Cats (2008)
Fiction / Color / 103 minutes

Following the chauffeur of a real estate big boss, we examine the forces of development and its discontents. Not surprisingly, this film takes its title from Deng Xiaoping’s famous formulation: It doesn’t matter if the cat is white or black, as long as it catches mice. The economic development that such sentence gave birth to is portrayed with brutal and surreal accuracy in Good Cats. Particularly as the film includes the ghosts and obsessions of these fast and furious changes, with wide angle establishing shots and long takes of uncanny duration. The musical excerpts by metal band Lamb’s Funeral, which break the fictional barrier, provide the dooming undertones that push the film to its fatal denouement.

As in all Yang Liang’s films, an archetypal universe is constructed out of the reality of Zigong, always portrayed at the brink of the disaster, echoing the haunted atmosphere of Tsai Ming-Liang’s films.

Stories in Mountain (2002)
Fiction / Color / 11 minutes

These Stories are structured around parallel narratives: While we see the harsh conditions of a migrant worker in Chongqing, his voice reads the letters he sends to his mother and sister. The contrast between both narratives produces a compelling short that comprises the predicament and illusion of rural migration to the big city in contemporary China.

The Missing House (2003)
Fiction / Color / 28 minutes

In a similar vein as Zhang Yuan’s Seventeen Years (Guonian Huijia, 1999), The Missing House follows a young prisoner who visits his home on a special Spring Festival one-day permit. Upon visiting his family, Chen Jun discovers the changes that had occurred during his imprisonment. However, while Zhang Yuan’s film leaves us with a note of hope, Ying Liang’s short movie is a dry tale of alienation and dislocation. Taking urbanisation as a trope for the rapid transformation of the cities and ways of life — as in many sixth generation films — Ying Liang achieves an intense film about solitude and despair.

I Love Lakers (2008)
Fiction / Color / 14 minutes

The alluring images of Lakers players Kobe Bryant and Pau Gasol populate little Junjie’s daydreams. Basketball is the only way of escape from the bulling of Junjie’s father and the school boredom. This short narrates effectively a tale of children abandonment and illusion, with a great performance of the young actor Feng Junjie.

Medicine (2009)
Fiction / B&W / 12 minutes

Medicine (‘The colors of the butterfly’, in its Chinese title) presents young Hudie (Butterfly) taking care of his sick granny while her mom is at work. When a blow of wind closes the door, leaving her outside the house, Hudie looks for help among her neighbours and friends, but everybody seems to be too busy except for Wang Siwei, another young kid with adult’s responsibilities. This short, shot beautifully in black and white, presents a vivid sense of realism that shows once again Ying Liang’s talent with young actors.

Condolences (2009)
Fiction / Color / 19 minutes

The burial rites for two deceased in a bus accident that killed 15 people in Zigong become the theatrical mise-en-scène where politicians, the media, a monk and an infuriated neighbour, among others, depict a vivid image of Zigong. Sitting among them, lost in her pain, Grandma Chen, who has lost her husband and son, gives her back to the audience and barely nods to the rest of characters.

In Condolences, Ying Liang’s narrative techniques are synthesized to a great effect. After the initial stills from the media reports about the accident, this short movie remains in a distant single take of strange beauty and warm empathy. Such scarce resources are nonetheless enough to convey Ying Liang’s style and preoccupations.