Minoru Matsuoka

Hua Heng is a poverty-stricken aspiring painter whose day job involves painting the ads that go up on the sides of buildings. He and his buddies hang out in a makeshift gym set up in an abandoned building where they train and practice kung fu. His girlfriend is Gao Xin, a bar maid who is in debt to loan sharks. Into their lives comes Jiaji, who happens upon Hua Heng in a street fight with local thugs who'd made fun of the painting he's carrying and decides to help him out.

The scenes of the tea-making process, which he says he rarely films, are not only unusual as a record, but also have a rhythm that makes you feel as if you are working alongside the tea master, and you are drawn into the process. The film fully reflects the director's intention of "capturing the coolness of people working silently". The story is a simple one, but the care with which the scenes of tea picking, tea making and workrooms are filmed creates a refreshing atmosphere that is unique to this film. In particular, the theme and subject matter are fused together in a scene in which the "moment of sublimation", which occurs when the body is continuously focused on one thing and the mind is emptied, is superimposed on the scenery outside the window where the protagonist looks out.