Anthony Chen Breaks the Ice With a Tale of Disillusioned Youth in China
variety.comManori Ravindran Executive Editor of International In 2021, a generation of disillusioned youth in China decided to step off the hamster wheel and “lie flat” on the ground.
Crushed by overbearing workloads with no long-term reward in the form of job security or home ownership, young people indulged in the “tang ping” resistance movement, which advocated for manageable working hours and a quality of life — all of which were the antithesis of China’s punishing 9-9-6 work culture — working 9 a.m.
to 9 p.m. six days a week. It’s this tang ping generation that Singaporean filmmaker Anthony Chen is speaking to in his latest film, “The Breaking Ice.” The movie, which premieres in Un Certain Regard at Cannes on May 21, follows three young people who hit the road together after their lives intersect unexpectedly. “In recent years, and in recent contemporary cinema in China, no one has really tried to do a real portraiture of it what feels to be a young person in China,” says Chen, who was speaking to Variety from Beijing, where a selection of his films had been screened at the city’s international film festival. “When I look at the films that are made about young people, it’s this very saccharine, vanilla, romantic drama.
And I don’t really believe those characters. They feel so made up, and as though they exist for some kind of fantasy off screen.” “The Breaking Ice” is a love letter to Chinese youth.
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