talking to Family

Returning to Chongqing after years of studying in Cape Town, director Kwei Shun-Yu moves through a city that feels both familiar and estranged. Within soaring urban skylines and quiet rural edges, he revisits memories shaped by grief, especially the recent death of his grandmother, while facing the emotional distance between him and his parents. In conversations with family and friends, tensions surface around expectation, study, and China’s rapid transformation, revealing long-held anxieties about the future and its uncertain direction, shaped by shifting social values and generational pressure. Everyday rituals—shared meals, prayers, and mah-jong games—become subtle stages where questions of faith, duty, and identity emerge across generations, exposing generational divides and the pressures of modern Chinese life. Blending personal reflection with intimate observation, talking to Family explores alienation and belonging, following a young man’s effort to bridge distance, memory, and connection, suspended in the space between departure and return.