AllMovie

Two filmmakers offer dramatically different tales of life in the Chinese city of Chengdu in this two-part omnibus feature. "1976," directed by Fruit Chan, takes place in the midst of the Cultural Revolution, as Crazy Zhao (Guo Tao) displays his easy skill with the traditional long-stemmed teapot at a small café. One of his fellow employees (Anya Wu) has fallen for him and is fascinated with his skills, but her love for him is destined to be unrequited as the winds of political change sweep through the city. And in "2029," music video director Cui Jian follows two characters (Huang Xuan and Tan Weiwei) through the bizarre futuristic city that sprung up after much of Chengdu was devastated in a 2001 earthquake. The twenty-something man and woman were both children when the disaster hit, and they search for signs of the old city as they're bombarded with visual information in the new one. Chengdu, Wo Ai Ni (aka Chengdu, I Love You) was originally intended to be a three-part feature, but director Hur Jin-ho opted instead to expand his contribution, set in 2008, into a feature of its own.