Day / Night

Lao Jia, a Chinese man whose favourite hobby is riding Harley Davidson motorcycles, wants to move his Beijing sidecar shop to a better location. He decides to expand his business and open a motorcycle-themed bar in downtown Beijing next to Houhai Lake with the help of his Danish partner, Nils. Zhang, the Chinese man who originally opened the sidecar shop with Lao Jia, is the leader of the workshop in the Beijing suburbs where all of the sidecars are made. Workers in this shop live together like a large family. Wang Chan, a Chinese woman who studies fashion design, falls into a romantic relationship with Niels, a Dutch man who studies the Chinese language in Beijing. Niels’ ideas of free love revolutionize the life of Wang Chan. As the summer comes to an end, Niels returns to Europe, while Wang continues her life commuting between Beijing and her hometown in Northern China. Wang must maintain her relationship with Niels through videoconferencing. Eventually, Wang starts to consider whether or not she should go to Europe and live with Niels, which includes discussing the advantages and disadvantages of both scenarios with her family. Ultimately, Wang decides to leave her life in China behind her and move to Europe.
Ryan came to China three years ago, fleeing from his traditional upbringing in Alaska. Ryan lives from day to day, sleeping in an old, three meters squared nuclear bunker that has been converted into cheap underground accommodation. Foreigners are not allowed to live at the bunker, so he lives with a Chinese friend, Li Yang. Ryan soon begins to feel trapped again and want to regain his complete freedom and live on the edge, so he decides lo leave the bunker. Li Yang returns to his hometown in central China and Ryan goes to Inner Mongolia to attend some courses on a bizarre pyramidmarketing scheme that another Chinese friend of his has joined. Marcos and Qiu Rong weave the very different lives of these people into a coherent documentary, raising questions about what is most important in life, and bringing to the surface some of the limitations documentaries face when trying to capture reality on film. Amid the maelstrom of events and people that shape the city of Beijing, we follow for ten months the lives of three individuals who live in the city, revealing the ways in which the differences between Western and Chinese thinking can raise questions about business, love, and creative process. (Pangea Films)