On the Beat (1995)

Original title

民警故事

Directed by

Ning Ying

Genre

comedy film

Country

People's Republic of China

Runtime

1h 42m

Rating

6.7 of 10 from 6 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A group of police officers in Beijing spend the slow winter months stuck in a dull routine. They mostly deal with minor incidents but occasionally find excitement, like chasing a rabid dog.

slow-pacedmundaneobservationalmelancholicquietly humorousslice-of-lifegroundedreflective

What happens

On the Beat (Chinese: 民警故事; pinyin: Mín jǐng gù shì; lit. 'People's Police Story') is a 1995 Chinese film directed by Ning Ying. It is the second film in Ning Ying's Beijing Trilogy, a collection of three films that follows the massive changes to Beijing in the last decades of the twentieth century. Whereas Ning's previous film, For Fun dealt with the older generation, On the Beat is firmly focused on the story of the middle-aged. I Love Beijing, meanwhile, would follow characters belonging Beijing's younger generations. On the Beat was coproduced by Eurasia Communications, Euskal Media and the state-operated Beijing Film Studio. Some funding was also from the International Film Festival Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund. On the Beat follows a group of police officers in the Deshengmen Precinct during the slow months of winter. The policemen, stuck in the dull winter months of Beijing, get stuck in a routine, only occasionally finding excitement, as when they chase after a rabid dog. Released in 1995, On the Beat made the rounds of most of the major international film festivals, including Toronto, Telluride and San Sebastián, among others. (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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