“Observations of a post-Tik Tok China” is how directors Huang Ji and Ryuji Otsuka summarize their newest film. Selected as part of the 2022 New York Film Festival, this cinematic study of a young woman freefalling through China’s hyper-capitalist economy “refuses to offer easy answers.” –Steph Green, IndieWire
Here is Lynn, a 20-something young woman trying, and not really succeeding, at being a flight attendant. She’s actually not succeeding at much, except wasting hours on her smartphone. But when she becomes pregnant, her plans for the future are completely upended, and she is confronted with China’s harrowing capitalistic realities. According to the filmmakers, Stonewalling’s script was crafted from interviews with college women trying to cope and better themselves. Set as the pandemic takes a firm hold on China, Stonewalling is a fierce critique of the country’s savage gig economy.
Director Biography
Huang Ji was born in Hunan in 1984 and studied screenwriting in the Beijing Film Academy. Her films include Egg and Stone (2012), and, directed with Ryuji Otsuka, Trace (2013), The Foolish Bird (2017) and Stonewalling (2022).
Ryuji Otsuka was born in Tokyo in 1972. He has been the cinematographer and producer for all the films directed by Huang Ji. He is the director of Beijing Ants (2013), and, with Ji, Trace (2013), The Foolish Bird (2017) and Stonewalling (2022).