Cicheng's Happy Life
2004/Color/DVCAM/30min
Location:Diqing, Yunnan
By:Wang Weizhu
E-mail:w.afu@126.com
Web: www.xgllgd.com
Screen
03/26 16 :30 2 hall
03/27 10:30 3 hall
There is a lot of talk about happiness but what exactly is happiness and what is a happy life?
This is the story of a Tibetan family in Jidi Village, Yunnan Province. Cicheng's family stands as a good example of Tibetan industriousness, courage and wisdom. It examines the close, harmonious and warm ties that bind them as well as their views on life and their ideas about happiness.
Cicheng is quite rich and the film attempts to reveal the sweat and tears behind his wealth. During matsutake season, the family must get up at four o'clock in the morning and walk several kilometers on mountain paths to gather a few mushrooms. That is nothing compared to the work they must do when harvest time comes. Cicheng sees things on the bright side when he says 'As long as you're alive, you can handle anything. Just like when the road is long, you can always make it around the next bend'and goes on to declare 'C'est la vie!'The mushroom season is over. The harvest is in too. It's plowing time again. Cicheng visits a neighboring village to return some ceremonial ox attire. The son brings significant improvement to the family's finances, while the daughter and her husband take on the heavy farm labor and the grandchildren grow up in good health. Cicheng is a happy man.
Wang Weizhu
Wang Weizhu earned a B.A. in drama at the Yunnan Arts Institute in 1999 and is a photographer for the Culture Department of Yunnan TV. In 2001, he returned to his hometown Deqing and worked as a journalist for the local TV station. In 2003, as a student and assistant, he worked with Yunnan TV director Wei Xing on the filming of Jinsi Hou (Golden Monkey), where he met Cicheng, the protagonist of Cicheng's Happy Life, and decided to make a film about him. Cicheng's HappyLife is his second documentary.
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