Sunset Street

1983, Wang Haowei, Mandarin

A melodrama set in a tenement courtyard in southern Beijing in the 1980s, Sunset Street tells a Robert Altman-style multi-character story. An unemployed young man, a middle-aged construction worker, and a retired man from different families face dramatic societal reforms, each longing for a better future. Once united by residence, their homes are torn down and they move into new apartments, going their separate ways. None of the people involved in the film could have imagined how the clash between old and new in Beijing would play out over the next 30 years.