26 Happiness Road

The stark contrast between city and village life are personified in a father-daughter relationship strewn with misread intentions and emotional distance. Xun-Qing a longtime city-girl from the country side revisits her village after some years to see her father Zhou a soft-spoken elderly man who owns and still operates his humble brick factory. However now he does so with visibly aging hands. A worried Xun-Qing wholeheartedly suggests he move to the city to live a "better life" with her. Their already fractious relationship further deteriorates when her offer is met with Zhou's emphatic rejection thus re-opening past wounds turning conversations into quarrels. Caught in the midst of the storm are the brick factory workers one of whom is Xiao-Bing - a hard-working steadfast young man unorphaned by Zhou as a child. Throughout the ordeal Xun-Qing finds familiar and kindred solace in Xiao-Bing's blunt brotherly advice just like their childhood years.