Chinese Film Week 2025: The True Story of Ah Q

Director: Cen Fan

Cast: Yan Shunkai, Wang Suya, Li Wei

Ah Q is a poor man that looks trivial, lives in small town Wei Zhuang and works as a casual laborer. Though Q is such a man, he always feels good about himself. He often makes trouble, gets himself into it and then gets abused and beaten. But he can make himself satisfied with his "spiritual victory" thoughts at last. Q ultimately is not able to save his life from a tragic ending.

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

The True Story of Ah Q is one of China’s undisputed cinematic classics and the first Chinese film selected for the main competition at Cannes. Adapted from the 1920s novel of the same name by the great leftist writer Lu Xun, the production was launched by Shanghai Film Studio to mark his 100^th birth anniversary in 1981. Ah Q is a poor farmer in the last days of the Qing Dynasty, exploited by feudalism and let down by the bourgeois 1911 Revolution that overthrew the old imperial system and replaced it with a republic. Furthermore, oppressive ideology distorts Ah Q’s psychology. This distortion was Lu Xun’s main focus, and trying to wake the Chinese people up from was his great aim as a writer. But for the filmmakers, having an anti-hero protagonist who is cowardly, self-deceiving, and opportunistic was a challenge. On one hand, it was a chance to break away from the simplistic black-and-white characters of the past. On the other, how could the audience accept an anti-hero? Director Cen Fan and screenwriter Chen Baichen solved this problem with a frame narrative about Lu Xun’s own struggle to write the novel. The result was an aesthetic and critical triumph.

Program of the Imázsia Chinese Film Week >>

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

Awards: Cannes Film Festival 1982 - Official Selection