Stand Straight, Don't Bend Over

The writer Gao moves into a new flat. His neighbour Zhang and Zhang’s wife are rude people. The Zhangs have already driven four neighbouring families out. Each time it came from a different quarrel. Now it is the turn of Liu, a party cadre. The dispute starts over a dog. The building works like a small country. The film sets three families of different trades and classes side by side. A wave of reform is changing all of their lives. New money, bribery and the housing question come on stage. Education and population policy are discussed as well. Old habits collide with the new order. Huang Jianxin tells it in the register of comedy. The film is adapted from a novel by Deng Gang. Feng Gong and Niu Zhen-Hua appear in the one hundred sixteen minute film, a Chinese production Huang Jianxin finished in 1993.