MUST-SEE MOVIES AND SERIES

IN WUHAN

Created by Figure, a short video brand that specializes in profiles of trailblazing individuals, this timely documentary series takes the audience to the eye of the storm: Wuhan, the city hit first and the worst by the Covid-19 epidemic.Two 17-minute episodes have been released at the time of writing, focusing on volunteer drivers and delivery workers, locksmiths suddenly in high demand to save pets trapped in apartments, and a barber giving free haircuts to doctors. The documentary began shooting in late January from the epicenter of the outbreak at great personal risk to the production team, and although it has been criticized for a lack of depth, it remains an inspiring look into how ordinary people in Wuhan live and cope with the crisis.

AND YET, THE BOOKS

The five-episode documentary is an ode to reading, produced by and streamed on Bilibili, a major Chinese web platform known for animation, streaming videos,and various sub-cultures. Its episodes cover the ins-and-outs of book publishing,design, and distribution, and the lives of avid readers. It focuses on individuals such as Zhu Yue, a novelist and literary editor who strives to publish and promote original literature, and Xiao Yin, a popular book reviewer who hosts a video broadcast. Narrated by actor Hu Ge, this documentary series takes a deep look at book-reading culture in our technology-saturated society, and finds that it is alive and thriving.

THE FIRSTS IN LIFE

This documentary series captures 12 milestone life events of ordinary Chinese,including the underprivileged: birth, going to school, marriage, purchasing a home, retirement, and facing the end of life. In the episode “Growing Up,”“left-behind children” in rural Yunnan fall in love with writing poetry. In another episode, “Going to Work,” disabled individuals take up jobs as online customer service agents for the e-commerce conglomerate Alibaba. Produced by China Network Television and the Shanghai Media Group, this series can be watched for free on cctv.com, Tencent Video, Bilibili, and Youku.com.

LOST IN RUSSIA

The fourth film in Xu Zheng’s “Lost” series, this road-trip comedy revolves around a mother and son’s adventures on a trans-Siberian slow train. Xu Yiwan(Xu Zheng), a divorced businessman, is guilt-tripped into taking his estranged mother Lu Xiaohua (Huang Meiying), a former nurse in the Chinese embassy in Moscow, on a journey to realize her lifelong dream of singing a solo at the Red Star Theater. Much of the humor originates from the strained mother-son relationship, as well as the exotic setting. The film’s initial cinema release was canceled ahead of Chinese New Year due to the Covid-19 outbreak, and it was sold to ByteDance for free online streaming. Lost is now available to view on Xigua Video and Huanxi Premiere. - LIU JUE (刘珏)