The Great Phuket

Summary

Fourteen-year-old Li Xing lives in a southern Chinese city in Great Phuket, a district full of decay and reconstruction. He doesn’t get along well with his mother who refuses to leave the family home which is slated for demolition. He also encounters nothing but problems at school. One day, Li and his only friend, Song, discover a tunnel that leads to a strange hideout where stones have recorded sounds from the past. During a chase with security guards from an abandoned factory, Song is so badly injured that he has to go to hospital. Song’s mother forbids the two boys from seeing each other again. Filled with despair and guilt, and feeling lonelier than ever, Li returns to the tunnel. But stranger and stranger things are happening there. Gradually the tunnel transforms into a creature that traps Li inside his sad memories. Step by step, Li finds the way out to the outside world. But as a trace of his passage, Li’s poem about his homeland and the people around him remains, recorded by the mysterious shelter of stones.

Source: 74. Internationale Filmfestspiele Berlin (Catalogue)