Streetwise
- Directed by: Na Jiazuo
- Released: 2024 (educational)
- Year of Production: 2021
Set in 2004 in Zhenwu, one of the many small towns in the Sichuan province where the young people who remain are those who could not leave. A gritty portrait of a group of outcasts in a fading riverside town as they come to terms with life’s uneasy lot.
With his father requiring costly and continual hospital treatment due to complications brought on by long term alcoholism, aimless youth Dongzi (Li Jiuxiao) ends up working as a debt collector for the local mafia. Further complicating things, Dongzi is in love with the boss’s wife (Huang Miyi), a troubled tattoo parlor owner who dreams of divorcing her husband and fleeing Zhenwu.
Breathtaking and unforgettable, this largely nocturnal neo-noir embraces a woozily romantic ambience, heightened by the alluring glow of neon signage, recalling the mood of Lou Ye's masterpiece Suzhou River.
"An unusual crowdpleaser...meditative and wickedly deadpan." — - Stephen Saito, The Moveable Fest
Na Jiazuo is an ethnic Manchu, born in 1989 and raised in Beijing. Having learned to draw from the age of nine, he was admitted to the affiliated middle school of the China Academy of Fine Arts in 2006. Upon graduation, he had originally hoped to go to the Dunhuang Grottoes to sculpt or work in mural restoration, but he failed to make the final China Academy of Fine Arts selection list.
In 2010, he was admitted to the Beijing Film Academy and majored in cinematography.
He enjoys being at home playing the piano, reading, sculpting, or simply just chilling. He is allergic to alcohol and doesn’t like going out much.
In 2007, at the age of 18, Na Jiazuo formed a six-member band that has since been reduced to just two members. During the summer of 2021, they composed a song called “Me First”, which became the theme song of his film, “Streetwise (Gaey Wa’r)”. Na Jiazuo created the lyrics, vocals, and part of the composition, and played the guitar accompaniment.
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