Don't Expect Praises

• Director: Yang Jin
• Cast: Li Shuchen, Wang Chen, Zhang Yuxuan, Peng Kehao
• Theatrical Release Date:
• Festivals: Berlin International Film Festival

Synopsis: Xiaobo and Yangjin are to spend the school holidays with their families in the countryside. Driving out of the city feels like going back in time. There’s hardly any traffic, only an antiquated bus that bumps along the unpaved road and a motorbike with a cargo rack that serves as a shared taxi. They may be the best of friends but Xiaobo and Yangjin are very different. One of them is tall, the other small. One knows everything you need to know at school and the other is the worst pupil in the whole class. But they are both equally cheeky. Xiabo loves to tell stories, like the one about the huge fish that bit his finger or the other about thousands of crabs he saw on the riverbank. Who knows if they’re true or the product of his lively imagination? His stories are animated and woven into the film, as are the other protagonists’ fantasies. Instead of going straight to his grandmother as he should, Yangjin first goes home with Xiaobo. Xiaobo’s father is strict and Xiaobo is only too glad to have his friend with him. Every day, Yangjin plans to go home, but every day he ends up staying on at Xiaobo’s place. And no wonder: the things they get up to just get better and better. [Synopsis courtesy of Berlinale]