Chinese Film Week 2025: Successor

Director: Yan Fei, Peng Damo

Cast: Shen Teng, Ma Li

Our guest at the screening will be Wang Yao, the teacher of the Beijing Film Academy

Ma Chenggang and Chunlan, who have "no oil in their soup and no money in their pockets", ride a donkey to work and have a poor family. Their son Ma Jiye is the only hope who can change their fate.

Film recommendation by Chris Berry, Professor at King's College London

‘Don’t let my son know that we are rich!’ Shen Teng and Ma Li star as parents determined that their son and heir should learn down-to-earth values. To stop him from be spoilt, they create a whole Truman Show fake world to raise him in. Beyond the humour of the elaborate subterfuge, the Successor struck box office gold in 2024 by touching on two hot-button issues in China. First, the country has rapidly transformed from a relatively poor but egalitarian society into a much richer one that also has a huge wealth gap, which the film satirises with the huge expenditure of money on creating an environment of poverty. And second, everyone in China is debating the right way to raise children. Should traditional filial values of obedience to one’s elders be upheld? Or should children be allowed to develop their independence and go their own way? Shen and Ma have a natural chemistry that has made them the King and Queen of Chinese comedy for over a decade. They are the leading lights of the country’s top comedy production house, Mahua FunAge, the creative genius behind this rambunctious but also touching farce.

Program of the Imázsia Chinese Film Week >>

Ticket Information
Ticket Prize: 2800 HUF /Discount for students, under 26, pensioners, over 65, teachers 2300 HUF