Ice Poison

Midi Z : 2014
Bing du

A young farmer and his father are barely able to survive on their meagre corn harvest and so they make their way down from the mountains to the village to borrow money from their relatives working in jade mines or on opium plantations. But missing paperwork, deceit and corruption have left them impoverished too. Finally, the father pawns his cow for a scooter so that his son can earn a living as a taxi driver. His first fare is Sanmei, who has returned to Burma to bury her grandfather. She's desperate to earn her and her son's way out of China, and to get out of an arranged marriage in order to begin a new life in her old country. When Sanmei accepts a job as a drug runner she persuades the young farmer to be her driver and the pair teams up to mule crystal meth (ice poison) around the city. Midi Zhao's third feature quietly observes two people's sense of alienation and their fear of losing their livelihood. His film premiered at Berlin International Film Festival 2014.