Trailer: ‘Dwelling by the West Lake’

By   |  Mar 28, 2024

‘Dwelling by the West Lake’ (草木人间) is a 2024 Chinese drama co-written and directed by Gu Xiaogang.

Based on the Buddhist tale ‘Mulian Rescues His Mother’, the film revolves around a young man who travels to Hangzhou to find his missing father but winds up having to save his mother after she gets sucked into a pyramid scheme. The cast includes Leo Wu, Jiang Qinqin, Chen Jianbin, Esther Wang, and Yan Nan.

Synopsis: Ten years after her husband He Shan disappeared into thin air, Moss Hua (Jiang Qinqin) is about to enter a new life, but fate pushes her to another level of desperation. She is driven away from the tea plantation by her lover’s (Chen Jianbin) mother and then tricked by her closest sister, Jinlan, into joining a pyramid scheme organization called Butterfly International. The mother is addicted to it, leaving her son, Mu Lian (Leo Wu), who is searching for his father, physically and mentally exhausted, while Butterfly International grows like a vine, rooting the seeds of evil in the hearts of countless people. Moss Hua is transformed into a “newborn”, from the way she dresses to the way she speaks and behaves, and her crazy behaviour surprises Mu Lian. As the son tries to save his mother, he finds himself wondering how he can escape from this human purgatory. [© Far East Films]

‘Dwelling by the West Lake’ opens across China on April 3, 2024.

Phil Mills
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