Dreamy, austere, and full of rustic beauty, Deming Chen’s stunning debut presents Gong Youbin, an adolescent boy living in Sangzhi County. Chen’s primary aim is to document Gong’s coming of age, but his perspective is wide enough to include the youth’s one-armed father and wizened, lively grandparents. These folks make for rich human portraiture, and Chen depicts them and their struggles with patience and grace. The director timestamps his narrative with excerpts of government radio broadcasts discussing improvements in the “New China”, dividing his material by alternating the dimensions of the frame and switching between colour and monochrome.
Chen’s eye for beauty is terrific, and the film’s most striking element is the visual treatment of Gong’s lush natural surroundings. Punctuating the flow of life are short, limpid poems: their text appears at transitional moments, imbuing the film with a contemplative air. Always is a metaphysical work in which each moment of beauty is weighted with a hint of things beyond our power of sight.
Supported by
Youbin Gong
USA/France/Taiwan/China
2025
In Hunanese with English subtitles
Animal cruelty; gender or sexual discrimination
At VIFF Centre
At Fifth Avenue
Indigenous & Community Access
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Credits & Director
Executive Producer
Gugi Gumilang
Producer
Hansen Lin
Cinematography
Deming Chen
Editor
Ichu Lin
Original Music
Yannick Dauby, Yueran Kan
Deming Chen 陈德明
Deming Chen is an emerging director and cinematographer based in Beijing, China, who studied at the Li Xianting Film School. His works are marked by a restrained yet expressive visual style, and explore themes of personal emotions and identities shaped by broad social and historical forces.
Filmography: Song of Shiratori (2022)
Spectrum
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