A Grandson from America

Lao Yang lives in a village in northwestern China. He is a retired shadow puppet master. His days pass quietly and to a pattern. One day the son he has not seen for years turns up. He has an American fiancée with him. She has a six year old boy from an earlier marriage. The child is called Brooks. The couple leave to volunteer in Tibet. The boy is left alone with the grandfather. The two of them can barely understand each other. Brooks has no Chinese and his habits are completely different. The old man’s temper is not soft either. What builds a bridge between them is the shadow play. The screen turns out to be the one language they both understand. Luo Jingmin and Jiaming Ding appear in the eighty nine minute film, a Chinese production Jiangtao Qu finished in 2012.