Dropouts and Dreamers Film Series: THE TROUBLESHOOTERS (1989)

DCP | 1989 | directed by Mi Jiashan | China | 110 minutes | Mandarin with English subtitles Free admission. No registration required. Three unemployed friends come up with an unusual business idea: they start a company to solve other people’s personal problems. The issues they help resolve range from dating difficulties and family disputes to organizing a fake awards ceremony for an unsuccessful writer. By staging the problems of ordinary citizens alongside contemporary rock music, fashion, and disco dancing, The Troubleshooters offer a unique perspective on the concerns and aspirations of Chinese society in the late 1980s. Post-screening discussion led by Zijing Yu (Film and Media Studies) will follow. This screening is part of the “Dropouts and Dreamers: Films of the Socialist 1980s” series, which explores the experiences of youth in the state socialist world during the transformative period of the 1980s. Presented by The Edward J. and Dorothy Clarke Kempf Memorial Fund, Department of Slavic Languages and Literatures.