Shan Li Shan Wai 山里山外

Description:

Shan Li Shan Wai is an inspirational film about Wang Feng-Jiao, a tea-picking girl from Xishan town in a mountainous county, who grew up on the charity of the whole village. Fearless of hardship and unyielding, she threw herself into work, painstakingly studied the art and ceremony of tea, and set her heart on reviving the tea industry, pursuing success in her career and giving back to society. This is a story of new rural life, set against the backdrop of Xishan's tea culture. Using as its thread a person writing under the pseudonym "Zhuxi Tea Guest," who supported Feng-Jiao's schooling and helped her start a tea house, the film vividly portrays Feng-Jiao, Wu Jun-Cheng, Yang Xi-Duo and a host of other characters. It celebrates the humanistic spirit of helping others, repaying kindness and dedicating oneself to one's calling, rich in warmth and the flavor of everyday life, deeply moving and powerful.
Wang Feng-Jiao, a tea-picking girl from Xishan who grew up on the charity of the whole village, lost both parents in a car accident when she was six. A person writing under the pseudonym "Zhuxi Tea Guest" kept sending her living expenses and supported her schooling. After graduating from high school, having broken up with Ma Lin, a poverty-alleviation official sent from the city, she went to work in town. She first worked at the Qiulian fast-food restaurant, but after an accidental conflict with a customer, she became a housekeeper in the home of Zhang Jie, an official of the county family-planning committee. As it happened, Ma Lin was the cousin of Zhang Jie's wife Chen Xiao, and at a banquet Zhang Jie held for Ma Lin and his wife, Feng-Jiao most reluctantly saw Ma Lin again. Unwilling to stir up the past, she decided to return to her home in Xishan, but at the station she ran into Xi-Que, who worked as a workshop manager at a garment factory. Feng-Jiao went to work at the garment factory. One day, the factory's boss Deng took her to meet a big client, Mr. Gong, who forced her to drink. Gong sent the drunken Feng-Jiao to a room, intending to take advantage of her. Feng-Jiao escaped and ran to the river to throw herself in, but was saved by Wu Jun-Cheng, owner of the Qingyou Tea House. She stayed on to work there, and thanks to her intelligence and love of learning she soon became the tea house's indispensable helper. At the Qingyou Tea House her life took a major turn. She took part in the county's intensive tea-ceremony training, then entered the provincial tea-ceremony competition and won second prize. Yang Xi-Duo, director of the Longwangya tea factory in Xishan town, came to the Qingyou Tea House, drawn by her reputation, bringing green tea produced by the factory for the tea house to sell on commission, and promoting Xishan's specialty, the sesame tea pastry. To expand and strengthen the tea business, Wu Jun-Cheng handed the tea house over to Feng-Jiao. Under her management it became a gold-lettered signboard for tea consumption in the county, with booming business. Its flagship products were Longfengwang and Jiancha tea from Xishan, and it added a special counter for tea and tea pastries from Feng-Jiao's home village of Xishan. Having achieved success and given up searching for the "Zhuxi Tea Guest," Feng-Jiao did not forget to give back to society: she began regularly going to the county post office and, in the name of the "Zhuxi Tea Guest," sending money to the "Disaster Relief Office of the Civil Affairs Bureau" to support the building of her hometown. While telling the story of Feng-Jiao's entrepreneurial journey, the film also recounts what happens among three young people. Ma Lin has not forgotten his feelings for Feng-Jiao; after much inquiring he finally meets her at the tea house, but the barrier in Feng-Jiao's heart cannot be removed at once. Hong-Yun also finds her way to the tea house, and under the persuasion of her first love, Mr. Wu, gradually comes to understand and accept the relationship between her son and Feng-Jiao. Xi-Duo, director of the tea factory, is Feng-Jiao's classmate and fellow villager, and a promising young man. He harbors tender feelings for Feng-Jiao but has never confessed them. At the end of the film, Ma Lin volunteers to return to the mountain village to take part in rural development, hoping to rekindle his former relationship with Feng-Jiao. Through the rises and turns of several protagonists in career and love, the film links city and countryside into a single world of frequent exchange and shared development, reflecting the shifting and ever-improving state of social life.