Piercing I(HKAFF 2017)

Winner of Best Animated Feature Film at the 4th Asia Pacific Screen Awards, Liu Jian’s dark debut feature scathingly indicts the viscerally brutal and unfair socioeconomic conditions of the poor and powerless. Listless youth Zhang Xiaojun just can’t catch a break. He gets falsely accused of shoplifting and beaten up by a corrupt manager. His employer goes bankrupt. Even when he helps out a hit-and-run victim, he ends up getting detained and abused by the police. Kicked to the ground too many times, Xiaojun and his friend decide to seek compensation by force, only to walk into even deeper trouble as multiple confrontations come to a head in a teahouse one fateful night.