Brief History of a Family

An incident in the playground brought together two secondary school students with nothing in common : Wei, outgoing and frank and Shuo, calm and observant. As their friendship progressed, Wei introduced Shuo to his father, a cell biologist, and to his mother, a former air hostess. Learning that Shuo came from a broken home the family welcomed this child from a difficult background with enigmatic charm. Slowly adapting to Wei's family life, Shuo soon discovered that their middle-class existence was darkened by unavowed secrets, unmet expectations and overwhelming emotions. An incident came up and complicated their lives in an unexpected way. - 'When the seemingly uneventful bourgeois existence of Wei's family is disrupted by the arrival of Wei's enigmatic friend, Shuo, they see it as an opportunity to install a new homeostasis. In doing so, the true relationship between the two boys is gradually revealed, the individual desires of some come into conflict with the collective needs of others, and the boundaries between space and emotions become blurred.' Lin Jianjie