An acrylic painting on wood panel, titled 'The Continent', compositing a Chinese mountainscape with the floating head of a man with glasses talking to a woman wearing a blue scarf. Painted at the bottom are theater seats with one moviegoer holding up a lit roman candle.

The Continent

(2014, Han Han)

Projected onto a tiny screen without English subtitles when I saw it but I enjoyed it nonetheless. I’m not entirely sure what happened: 3 guys decide to leave their hometown and journey west in China. Along the way, while at a hotel, one of the guys invites a call girl to the room (not knowing she is a prostitute). Police come knocking and they escape through the window, leaving one guy behind. The girl’s pimp tracks them down to retrieve her and the 2 guys are left to themselves. They meet a handful of characters with varying importance. I’m sure some life lessons were learned, but I’m not sure. The male performances were overly poetic and so on. I wish the females had more focus since their stories seemed to have more weight (one girl was an actress in an Anti-Japanese way movie).


A screenshot from the Chinese movie 'The Continent' of a young man with glasses and hair in his face looking dejected on a boat. An animated gif of a scene from the movie 'The Continent' of a young man jumping across the tops of concrete culverts. A screenshot showing the business card of a Chinese callgirl. From the Chinese movie 'The Continent'.

© 2014 - Laurel Films