The Breaking Ice(HKAFF2023)

Un Certain Regard Section, Cannes Film Festival
Toronto International Film Festival
Melbourne International Film Festival

In cold wintry Yanji in northern China, visiting urbanite Haofeng feels lost and adrift. By chance he meets Nana, a tour guide who instantly fascinates him. She introduces him to Xiao, a personable but frustrated restaurant worker. The trio bond quickly over a drunken weekend, fuelled by a bit of lust. Confronting their individual traumas, their frozen desires slowly thaw as they seek to liberate themselves from an icy world. A reflection of the director’s existential crisis during the pandemic, the film is also a mirror to the Chinese lost, frustrated youth generation.