TRAILERS

New Trailer for Qiu Sheng's Coming-of-Age Mystery 'Suburban Birds'

by Alex Billington
March 14, 2019
Source: YouTube

"I always wanted to expose something hidden." The Cinema Guild has debuted an official US trailer for an acclaimed Chinese coming-of-age film titled Suburban Birds, the feature directorial debut of filmmaker Qiu Sheng. This premiered at the Locarno Film Festival last year, and is next playing at the prestigious New Directors/New Films festival in New York City later this month. The mysterious Suburban Birds is about an engineer sent to investigate a suburban area. After days of wandering around in the empty suburb looking for answers, Hao walks into a primary school where he finds a diary chronicling the story of a boy. As the investigation continues, he discovers that this diary might contain prophecies about his own life. Described as "'Stand By Me' meets Kafka's 'The Castle,'" the indie drama is "both a reflection on the slippery nature of memory as well as a comment on China's rapid urbanization that heralds the arrival of an exciting new voice." Starring Zihan Gong, Lu Huang, and Mason Lee. This looks like a real unique cinema discovery.

Here's the official US trailer (+ two posters) for Qiu Sheng's Suburban Birds, direct from YouTube:

A striking debut film from China's Qiu Sheng, Suburban Birds is a tantalizing mystery and a bittersweet coming-of-age comedy rolled into one. Hao (Mason Lee) is part of a team of young engineers called in to investigate a series of craters that have opened up on the edge of the city. As he and his team survey the subsiding area, another story is taking place in the same suburban landscape. A younger boy, also named Hao, spends long afternoons playing with friends and making mischief until one-by-one, his playmates start to disappear. As these parallel stories unfold, the connections between them proliferate and grow stranger. With virtuosic assurance, Qiu employs distinct styles for each of the two narrative strands and unites them with a wry and wistful sense of humor. Suburban Birds is both written and directed by Chinese filmmaker Qiu Sheng (aka Brandon Q), making his feature directorial debut after a few shorts previously. This premiered at the Locarno Film Festival last year. The Cinema Guild will release Qiu Sheng's Suburban Birds in select US theaters starting April 5th next month. For more info, visit the official website. Curious?

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