Urban Distrib - Underground Fragrance
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Catalogue

Underground Fragrance

By Pengfei

Country: France, China

Language: Mandarin Chinese

Original title: Underground Fragrance

Casting: Ze Ying, Wenjie Luo, Fuyu Zhao, Xiaohui Li

Production year: 2015

Runtime: 01h15

Production company: House on Fire, Mishka Production

YONG LE, a young migrant worker from the south, salvages furniture to re-sell. He lives in a room in Beijing’s Underground City, a labyrinthian former bomb shelter that serves as cheap housing for people looking for opportunity in the big city. But after a bad work accident leaves him temporarily blind, he has to use a rope to find his way around the dimly lit basement halls, until the night he meets a girl at the other end of his rope…

XIAO YUN, is a migrant too. She is desperately trying to find new employment so that she can leave her job pole dancing at nights. Her meeting with YONG LE and their burgeoning relationship encourages her to hunt for a more respectable job.

At ground level, old LAO JIN has been struggling for years to get a decent compensation deal from the authorities who want to demolish his house. His health is declining and his savings are evaporating. And he’s counting on YONG LE to sell his furniture at a good price.

Three lives propelled by the « Chinese Dream » intermingle in the vast melting pot of the Beijing metropolis.

Venice Days 2015 – Fedeora Award for Best Film

Busan IFF 2015 – Window on Asian Cinema

Warsaw IFF 2015 – Discoveries Section

Chicago IFF 2015 – New Director’s Competition – Gold Hugo Award for Best Film

Sao Paulo IFF 2015 – International Perspective Section

Bratislava IFF 2015 – Competition of First and Second Feature Films

Bangkok IFF 2015 – Asian Contemporary Section

Kolkata IFF 2015 – Asian Select Section

Hong Kong Asian IFF 2015

Torino IFF 2015 – Torino FilmLab Section

Gijon IFF 2015 – Rellumes Competition

IFFI Goa 2015 – Cinema of the World Section

Bengaluru IFF 2016

Istanbul IFF 2016 – Young Masters’ Section

Dragon FF 2016

Indielisboa IFF 2016 – Silvestre Section

Taipei IFF 2016

Karlovy Vary IFF 2016 – Another View Section

« Pengfei, who asserts there a certain talent for observation and staging, explores in small touches a harsh urban reality, as well as the solitudes generated by these violent mutations. » - La Croix

« This first feature by an assistant and screenwriter of Tsai Ming-liang tells with grace and without pathos how this megalopolis expands by reducing the poorest to the condition of ants. » - Première