One of the most heralded films from last fall’s festival circuit––playing at Venice, TIFF, NYFF, and BFI London––came from directors Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka, the wife-and-husband team hailing from Beijing. Their strikingly shot, patient drama Stonewalling, which follows the journey of a student flight attendant whose plans to finish college are thrown into doubt when she discovers she’s pregnant, marks the continuation of a trilogy led by Yao Honggui, which also includes Egg and Stone and The Foolish Bird. Now set for a theatrical release from KimStim starting March 10 at Film at Lincoln Center, where they will screen the entire trilogy with the directors in person, we’re pleased to exclusively debut the U.S. trailer and poster.
Here’s the official synopsis: “20-year-old Lynn is told she needs English classes, flight attendant school, and a go getter-attitude. She perseveres along this path of upward mobility until she finds out she’s pregnant. Indecisive and running out of time, she tells her boyfriend she’s had an abortion and instead returns to her feuding parents and their failing clinic to try and figure out (if she can) what’s next. Built from interviews with college women happy to invest in themselves, observations of a post-TikTok China, and their own lived experiences, Stonewalling is perceptive with meticulous attention to detail. Returning with a now adult Yao Honggui (The Foolish Bird, Egg and Stone) opposite the directors’ own parents, husband-and-wife team Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka take a look at the new norms of gig-economy, grey markets, MLMs, and hustling in modern-day metropolitan China through the experiences of one ordinary young woman.”
Soham Gadre said in his NYFF review, “The ebbs and flows of a rather long, deliberately paced narrative can test most viewers. Especially difficult when it seems the movie’s central conflict doesn’t manifest in a few key sequences, instead building piece-by-piece over time, in small gestures. Those with a keen eye and ear, who are willing to soak in commentary on muted malaise of 21st-century youth, will find reward in Huang Ji and Ryûji Otsuka’s Stonewalling. Like the characters, it plays a waiting game: this film bets its outskirt sleepy venues will absorb viewers enough to find deeper meaning. Not only about the modern lives of China’s youth, but also the troubling economic and social inheritances that will come to the generations after. “
See the exclusive trailer below.
Stonewalling opens on March 10 at Film at Lincoln Center.