Comments: I watched a bad print, very dark and sort of blurry, like an old film with very little story. Could have been a fifteen minute film. Sounds harsh but it seems like you needed to bring sympathy to it rather than the film evoking it.
Summary: Tao Lan and Yu Xiaoqin are teenage stepsisters. They go to the same high school, sleep in the same bedroom, but couldn't be more different. The first is wild, a bit of a vagabond, while the other is diligent and studies hard. One day Yu Xiaoqin steals money from her father and puts the blame on Tao Lin, who accidentally kills her sister while attempting to prove her innocence, and is put in jail. 17 years later, a woman by now, she is allowed out and is escorted by a guard to find her home long demolished. The two go to the new address of the ageing parents, and the guard becomes an eyewitness to the difficult reunion and the girl's remorse, the anxiety and fear of the mother and the stepfather's silent struggle to rise above his pain and find forgiveness.
Guo nian hui jia
1999
Italy, China
Seventeen Years
