When an elderly Beijing couple receives notice that their only son has allegedly committed suicide and has been buried on Canadian soil, they travel to Vancouver to investigate the mysterious circumstances of his death. Made over the course of ten years, docu-thriller THE WORLD IS BRIGHT guides the viewer down a rabbit hole of mental illness, the crushing wheels of bureaucracy, and the vulnerability immigrants can face without cultural coping mechanisms. The themes and questions the film explores — such as the stigma surrounding mental illness, the invisible mechanisms of control in our modern life, the dislocation and disconnection produced through global migration, and the perpetual search for meaning — are universal and relevant to all contemporary societies. (Content Warning: Death, Suicide, Violence, Immigration Injustice)
- Year2019
- Runtime116 minutes
- LanguageChinese
- CountryCanada
- NoteEnglish Subtitles
- DirectorYing Wang
- CastBerlin Lu
When an elderly Beijing couple receives notice that their only son has allegedly committed suicide and has been buried on Canadian soil, they travel to Vancouver to investigate the mysterious circumstances of his death. Made over the course of ten years, docu-thriller THE WORLD IS BRIGHT guides the viewer down a rabbit hole of mental illness, the crushing wheels of bureaucracy, and the vulnerability immigrants can face without cultural coping mechanisms. The themes and questions the film explores — such as the stigma surrounding mental illness, the invisible mechanisms of control in our modern life, the dislocation and disconnection produced through global migration, and the perpetual search for meaning — are universal and relevant to all contemporary societies. (Content Warning: Death, Suicide, Violence, Immigration Injustice)
- Year2019
- Runtime116 minutes
- LanguageChinese
- CountryCanada
- NoteEnglish Subtitles
- DirectorYing Wang
- CastBerlin Lu