City Scenes (2004)

Zhao Liang went out with his handheld camera to capture life in Beijing. He found a city in a state of confusion, one which pays a high price for the fast economic developments in China. The scenes he collected in the course of a few years especially reveal the raw side of life in Beijing. We see two well dressed men pelt each other with stones in the street - they must be drunk, just like the man that keeps falling off his bicycle. But not everyone is desperate. Some people make the best of things, and this makes for some bizarre situations: people collectively practising tai chi on an overpass, a sheepdog trying to show his passion for a Pekingese, and tennis players squaring off on the highway.