The leading “clown” role in a renowned theatre troupe passes on, and is welcomed into the Underworld. As he relives his vivid memories one last time before entering the afterlife, fifty years of art, struggle and love play out against the background of 20th-century China’s tumultuous history.

“The story is inspired by the life of my grandfather, the Sichuan opera clown-role actor Qiu Fu-xin. Growing up in the daily reality of an opera troupe, I suppose I had an odd, piecemeal view of this world, seen only from the inside as a moving collage of faces, expressions, voices, gestures, sounds, smells and colours, warm or cold, damp or dry, drunk or sober...”, the film director comments.