Floating around in an almost empty Beijing, the main character (nicknamed “Monkey”) in director Jiang Wen’s In the Heat of the Sun is just like the society in which he lives, lacking clear direction.
The film takes place in the last years of the Cultural Revolution, when everything from school to families are seriously dysfunctional. The universities are still closed. Monkey’s teachers are not held in high esteem and his mother is deeply depressed by her fate and loss of opportunity. Belonging to a gang of boyhood friends Monkey engages in street fights in the hutongs, while at the same time he is falling in love for the first time. The film is set in a decadent but stunningly beautiful version of the Capital, and offers an insight into Beijing just before the great transformation that took place after Mao’s death. Change is budding in a strangely frozen environment, however not yet in bloom....
Where: Beijing Postcards, No. 97 Yangmeizhu Byway (杨梅竹斜街97号)
Cost: 110RMB (including cocktails and other drinks)