片名(Title)： 小周的故事
英文名(English Title)：The Tale of Zhou
片长(Running Time)： 136
年份(Year of Production)：2006
导演(Director)：蒋萍 罗坚
制片人(Producer)：蒋萍 罗坚
摄影(Cinematography)：罗坚 蒋萍
剪辑(Editing)：林旭东 罗坚
公司(Production) 蒋萍纪录片工作室
梗概中英文(Synopsis in Chinese and English) 电影简介
从湖北家乡逃祸到广州的时候，小周刚刚18岁， 在广州的生活中，他摆过地摊、打架坐过牢、在剧组打过杂、卖过违禁药品……
我们遇到小周的时候是2002年，27岁的小周被人绑架，经朋友搭救刚刚放出来。他向我们表达了想走正道，过“正常”生活的想法，我们花两年的时间跟踪拍摄了小周此后的生活……
The first segment in an ambitious five-part documentary series by independent Chinese filmmakers Jiang Ping and Luo Jian, “The Tale of Zhou” tells the story of Zhou Yichen, a streetwise young man trying to make it as an outsider in the bustling southern metropolis of Guangzhou. As the film opens, Xiao Zhou (“Little Zhou”, as he is known to friends) is down on his luck. Having been kidnapped and held for ransom earlier that year under rather mysterious circumstances – perhaps in connection with a gangland rivalry, although this is never explicitly stated – Xiao Zhou’s status in the Guangzhou underworld has undergone a precipitous decline. Desperate to make ends meet and regain some face, Xiao Zhou signs on as a waiter at a fashionable local restaurant run by the fast-talking longhaired entrepreneur Dr. Wu, himself an alumnus of Guangzhou’s mean streets. But Xiao Zhou’s transition to the straight life is not an easy one: given an opportunity to enter the lucrative methamphetamine trade with his old friend “Fats”, he quits his restaurant job after a mere three days, citing a variety of excuses (illness in the family, an outstanding police warrant). His employer Dr. Wu is not fooled: “If you believe that the camera never lies, just watch,” he solemnly proclaims. “There’s no way that kid is going back to his hometown.”
Dr. Wu’s judgment proves to be correct. Before long, Xiao Zhou is back to his former life: nightclubs, three-day drug binges, late-night cell phone calls, prostitutes and imported pornography. But when a run-in with two angry pimps lands Xiao Zhou in the hospital, it turns out to be a blessing in disguise: while being treated for his injuries, he manages to evade a major drug bust in which Fats and a dozen others are arrested for involvement in the meth lab scheme. “It’s the same for everyone in our generation,” Xiao Zhou muses. “We’re corrupted by money. We try to be good, but we end up getting seduced. In Guangzhou, if you don’t have money, you’re a nobody.”
Realizing how narrowly he has escaped disaster, and eager to make amends to his family and sever his ties to his old life, Xiao Zhou agrees to return to his home province of Hubei to rest and recuperate. Before long, however, he begins to chafe at boredom and hypocrisy of small town life. It seems that his parents – particularly his ex-police officer father - fearful that their friends and neighbors might discover the truth, have been claiming that their son was injured in an auto accident while visiting the United States.
Xiao Zhou soon returns to Guangzhou and makes another attempt at honest living. After trying his hand at a variety of endeavors – hawking balloons, passing out publicity flyers, working as a camera assistant for TV commercials and trying to establish a fast-food delivery service – he finally lands a position at an internet start-up run by his old employer, Dr. Wu. It seems that Xiao Zhou has finally found an ideal outlet for his talents, a way to put his street smarts to legitimate use. But when an altercation with a co-worker causes him to be fired (his manager’s parting words: “It’s easier to move a mountain than to reform an incorrigible!”), we are left to wonder what will become of Xiao Zhou and the many others like him, outsiders seduced by the promise of fast money and big respect in a city that will never belong to them…