Piano in a Factory
Zhang Meng
When Chen's wife reappears demanding a divorce and custody of their daughter, the music-loving daughter says she'll live with whichever parent can secure her a piano. With no other means, Chen sets out to build a piano from scratch out of scrap metal in an abandoned steel factory.
With : Yongzhen Guo, Shin-yeong, Jang Qian, Liu Xingyu, Liu Er-yang, Luo Wang, Qian-Yuan, Hailu Qin
Image : Shu Chou
Editing : Gao Bo
Music : Young-Mook Oh
Image : Shu Chou
Editing : Gao Bo
Music : Young-Mook Oh
Production : Perfect World Pictures Co., Dalian Hung Yuan Film & TV, Etoile Pictures, Liaoning Film Studio
International sales: Golden Network IC Asia Ltd
International sales: Golden Network IC Asia Ltd
The film captures the transition of China from an industrial era to a capitalistic one as a result of its rapid modernisation. It's the early 1990s and the working class was facing serious everyday challenges as money-losing state-owned factories shut down. Unemployment and uncertainty swept through China's industrial northeast. Through the story of Chen's incredible scheme of making a piano from scratch for his daughter, the movie gives us a glimpse into the living conditions of China's poorer working class, and their psychological and spiritual trials during that tumultuous time. The piano project brings the workers back together and into the factory life they sorely missed. Born in Liao Ning Province, China in 1975, Zhang Meng directed his first documentary Mr Zhang and His Dog in 2008. In 2010, he wrote and directed the feature film The Piano in a Factory.