This documentary offers a very intimate, warm and at times heart-breaking portrait of an average countryside Chinese family in Guizhou province, famous for its karst landscapes and rice terraces. The subject matter is the director's own family and their day-to-day pastimes, ruminations about their past and future, and as the events progress, their coping with a devastating loss amidst their loved ones. The documentary is focussed around Chinese New Year, which usually takes place within January or February on the lunar calendar. All scenes are interspersed with beautifully captured images of the surroundings and countryside. A degree of familiarity with more old-fashioned Chinese culture (that outside of the big cities) helps quite a bit to understand the portrayed scenes but is certainly not required. Warmly recommended for the casual viewer, and a must for anyone having in some way ties to rural China.
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