Hu Bo	...	(Director)
	...	(Writer)
Yu Zhang	...	Yu Cheng
Yuchang Peng	...	Wei Bu
Uvin Wang	...	Huang Ling (as Wang Yuwen)
Congxi Li	...	Wang Jin
Xiang Rong Dong	...	Dean
Jing Guo	...	Dean's wife
Miaomiao He	...	Cheng's friend's Mother
Ximan Huang	...	White dog's female owner
Wei Kong	...	Jin's son-in-law
Yixin Kong	...	Jin's granddaughter
Binyuan Li	...	Scapler
Danyi Li	...	Jin's daughter
Qing LI	...	White dog's male owner
Suyun Li	...	Bu's mother
Zhenghui Ling	...	Li Kai
Hua Lun	...	Composer
Chao Fan	...	Cinematographer
Hu Bo	...	Editor

Comments: With so many great faces on the cast I would have photographed the back of their heads a little less. A color palette of elephant and a four hour run time is enough to keep the riffraff out and earn street cred.

This is a 5/5 star masterpiece after it's over, for sure, but there are too many 3&4 star moments while watching it to give it a 5. The film lingers, though. I might up it to 5 tomorrow. The couple times I've tried to tell friends about the film, to describe it to them, has increased my fondness for it.

The film is ambitious. Remind yourself when it's over that everything in the film happens in one day.

Mainland films from the edges, with reasonable production values and evidence of skill (not simply anger), are hard to come by. We get one, maybe two a year. When they strike they are powerful. I've seen better, or I should say I've sat through better, but this thing has an aura that won't quit.

The un-Chinese sounding soundtrack, and I'm not sure what I mean by that, it's just the way it struck me, is remarkably good.

The phenomenon of the film is bigger than the film.

Summary: In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits and ignores the world. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film, a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves. Among them is schoolboy Bu, on the run after pushing Shuai down the stairs, who was bullying him previously. Bu's classmate Ling has run away from her mother and fallen for the charms of her teacher. Shuai's older brother Cheng feels responsible for the suicide of a friend. And finally, along with many other characters whose fates are inextricably bound together, there's Mr. Wang, a sprightly pensioner whose son wants to offload him onto a home. In virtuoso visual compositions, the film tells the story of one single suspenseful day from dawn to dusk, when the train to Manzhouli is set to depart.