Shattered
Xu Tong • 2011
Tang Caifeng (also known as Tang Xiaoyan) has been away from home for many years and involved in prostitution and illegal mining but nothing has gone well with her. This winter she returns to her hometown in Northeastern China to celebrate Spring Festival with her 80-year-old father, Old Tang. All Old Tang’s children comes home happily, but the good times do not last long and one family quarrel leads to another. Old Tang becomes left behind by his children. Old Tang then tells the story of his life to the camera intermittently. This winter is filled with snow, laughters and gloomy old memories. In the end, Tang Caifeng leaves home again with an uncertain future.
CAST & CREW
DIRECTOR'S STATEMENT
Xu Tong
Director
Lao Tang Tou was born in Heilongjiang Province in 1930. His father Tang Shirong had saved the life of Zhao Shangzhi from the Northeast Anti-Japanese Allied Forces during the period of Manchukuo, so he was very prestigious in the village. There are five brothers in the Old Tang family, and they are named in the order of “benevolence (“ren”), righteousness(“yi”), courtesy(“li”), wisdom(“zhi”), faith(“xin”)” stated in the family tree. Lao Tang Tou is the youngest so he got the given name of “xin” - Tang Xixin.He has an amazing memory of his past experience in eighty years. The director spent the whole winter filming Lao Tang Tou walking us through his legendary life. The film shows the legendary yet humble life of individuals in the unrelenting vicissitudes of twentieth-century Chinese history.