The Common People

Wheelchair-bound Ma Dali is a guest speaker at the Model Handicapped People conference in Beijing, lecturing on how cerebral palsy patients have to also help others. He undergoes an expensive operation so that he can walk, but the surgery fails.While recovering, he rescues nurse Liu Xiaorong from a suicide attempt. Fired, she moves in with Ma Dali’s family.A deluxe rehabilitation centre opens nearby. Unable to afford it, Dali vows to open his own. Meanwhile, Li Yun runs around Beijing on crutches with just one hour to raise the money for her friend Chen Gang’s operation...
Screening Schedule

No physical screenings scheduled.
Direction: Zhou Xiaowen
Script: Zhou Xiaowen & Wang Anqing & Zhang Daqian
Cinematography: Lü Gengxin
Editing: Chen Xiaohong
Sound: Hong Yi
Music: Zhao Jiping
Actors: Gao Hu (Ma Dali),Wang Qun (Li Yun), Zhao Ping (Liu Xiaorong),Wang Liyuan (Ma’s mother), Jin Shuzhi (granny), Liu Shangxian (Yan’s mother)
Production: Shanghai Film Studio
Producers: Zhu Yongde
Sets: Zhang Daqian
Format: 35mm
Color: Color
Production Country: China
Production Year: 1997
Duration: 99’

Zhou Xiaowen

Born in Beijing in 1954, Zhou Xiaowen studied newsreel cinematography at Beijing Film Academy after a period in the army. He was assigned to Xi’an Film Studio, only making the shift to a film director after Wu Tianming became head of the studio in 1984. After debuting with the war movie In Their Prime, which was banned at the time, Zhou made the influential genre films Desperation and Obsession.

Filmography

1986 In Their Prime
1987 Desperation (aka The Last Frenzy)
1988 Obsession (aka The Price of Frenzy)
1990 Black Mountain Road
1991 No Regrets About Youth
1992 The Impulse of Youth
1992 The Trail
1993 Presumed Guilty (aka The Lie Detector)
1994 Ermo
1995 The Emperor’s Shadow
1997 The Common People