City Paradise (Du Shi Tian Tang)

(China 2000, VHS, 108 min.)

Director: Tang Danian
Cast: Gao Hu, Li Lingling, Liu Tianchi, Huang Suying

Dasheng is one of millions of Chinese who are from the countryside making their lives in the big city. He is quite satisfied with what he has made for himself: a job as a window-cleaner, a girlfriend he adores and foster parents he respects. He never tells others that he is married in his hometown and that his wife and mother are looking forward to his return some day. Dasheng is quite contented with his urban life, but his happy existence teeters on the edge of ruin.

Director's Biography

Born in 1968 and graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1989, Tang Danian is an active member of "The Sixth Generation" filmmaking group in China. As a scriptwriter, he's written for the acclaimed films Beijing Bicycle (winner of a Jury prize at the Berlin International Film Festival 2001), Beijing Bastards, Good Morning Beijing, and won an International Script Award at the Sundance Film Festival in 1996 for Crazy Guy. City Paradise is his directorial debut.