Private Project

THE ROAD NOT TAKEN

In the depths of western China’s Gobi Desert, Yong (Wang Xuebing) operates a dilapidated ostrich farm, which is the last throw of the dice for him as he tries to win back his ex-wife and repair his life. One day, Mr. Wu (Wang Xufeng) comes looking for a debt to be repaid. When Yong can’t come up with the money, Wu leaves a lonely little boy (Zhu Gengyou) behind, telling Yong to look after him. Suspecting his ex-wife might be considering another marriage, Yong can only take the boy along as he goes to find her. In three days crossing the Gobi, they meet a sad and depressed female trucker Mei (Ma YiLi), and the three lonely people become a pseudo-family.More people join the action and the relationship between Yong and the boy is constantly tested and evolving over this journey. In the end, through these series of random encounters, every person embarks on their own path of no return.

  • Gaopeng Tang
    Director
  • Xiaojun Yue
    Writer
  • Gaopeng Tang
    Writer
  • Zheqing Duan
    Writer
  • Wei Sun
    Producer
  • Xiaochun Zhang
    Producer
  • Xin Cao
    Producer
  • Xuebing Wang
    Key Cast
    "Yong"
  • Yili Ma
    Key Cast
    "Mei"
  • Gengyou Zhu
    Key Cast
    "Kid"
  • Project Title (Original Language):
    未择之路
  • Project Type:
    Feature
  • Runtime:
    1 hour 53 minutes
  • Completion Date:
    June 1, 2018
  • Production Budget:
    6,000,000 USD
  • Country of Origin:
    China
  • Country of Filming:
    China
  • Language:
    Chinese
  • Shooting Format:
    Digital
  • Aspect Ratio:
    scope
  • Film Color:
    Color
  • First-time Filmmaker:
    Yes
  • Student Project:
    No
  • 2018 Shanghai International Film&TV Festival
    Shanghai
    China
    June 19, 2018
    North American Premiere European Premiere
    Best Film of Asian New Talent Award
Director Biography - Gaopeng Tang

BIOGRAPHY
Tang graduated from Beijing Broadcasting Institute in 1997 with a major in TV Commercial
Creativity & Production.
Tang worked for Beijing Culture Art A/V Publishing House, China Central Television Station
Channel 2 and Zenith Film Productions (Beijing) as a Creative Group Head and a short
film/MV/TVC director before starting his own studio and beginning a career as an
independent director in 2002.
Tang is regarded among the most outstanding TVC directors in China, well recognized for
his conceptual thinking ability, visual narrative skills, pragmatic execution, unique sense of
humor, as well as the delicate human touch in his works.
At the 17th Shanghai international film festival in 2014, as co-writer of screenplay "The
Road Not Taken", Tang won the Special Regard Award for Film Market and he made his first
feature film based on this script in 2016.

Add Director Biography
Director Statement

Insecurity has become common among various groups in today’s China because of the increasingly severe social classification and differentiation.
Everybody is worried about losing, losing what they already have, losing what does not belong to them, and losing what they can never have.
In the shadow of the booming economy, on the road across Gobi Desert in western China, I imagine two fellows traveling together, an adult loser and a child loser, their relationship, and how their fate is challenged，changed and determined by themselves, by each other, and by those lonely and anxious ones they met along the way; what would they think and look back “the road not taken”.
So there is the movie.