Take Off

Worker Li Mingqi has flying in his blood. His father had already pursued the great dream of Icarus, but his son wants to soar even higher and experiments with just about anything that promises a flight into the skies. But pride, as they say, comes before a fall—and so it does for Li Mingqi, who plummets from the sky and seriously injures his brother-in-law. In the aftermath, Mingqi must solemnly promise his father-in-law and his wife to keep both feet firmly on the ground. And because Li Mingqi is a thoroughly decent man, tormented by guilt over the permanent injuries his brother-in-law suffered in the accident, he truly gives up on flying and instead opens a dance hall with his wife in a decommissioned industrial museum. Business, however, struggles to take off, with only a handful of guests showing up—but Li Mingqi’s inventive spirit seems to know no bounds… When his nephew falls gravely ill and money is needed for treatment, Li Mingqi decides to take to the skies one final time.

Pengfei’s heartwarming, jet-propelled family saga is based on The Aeronaut by Shuang Xuetao. With broad, generous strokes, the director paints a portrait of China at the end of the 20th and beginning of the 21st century. For him, it is the relentless, well-intentioned—though often futile—efforts of ordinary people that make for good story or stories, while we sit in the cinema unsure whether we should laugh or cry.