''Youth (Spring)'' ( zh, c=青春, p=qīng chūn; french: Jeunesse (Le Printemps)) is a 2023 documentary film directed by Wang Bing. It is an international co-production between China, France, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands. The film focuses on a group of young textile workers in the Chinese town of Zhili. It is the first entry in a trilogy of films that follow the same characters over an extended period of time. The film was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the 76th Cannes Film Festival, where it had its world premiere on 18 May 2023. It is the first installment in Wang Bing's ''Youth'' trilogy, followed by '' Youth (Hard Times)'' and '' Youth (Homecoming)'' in 2024.

Synopsis

The film focuses on a group of young textile workers in Zhili, a town in the Wuxing District of

Huzhou Huzhou (, ; Huzhounese: ''ghou² cieu¹'') is a prefecture-level city in northern Zhejiang province (Hangzhou–Jiaxing–Huzhou Plain, China). Lying south of the Lake Tai, it borders Jiaxing to the east, Hangzhou to the south, and the provinc ...

, located 150 kilometres outside of Shanghai. Every year, young people leave their rural villages and migrate to the manufacturing town. The workers are in their twenties, some in their thirties. They sleep upstairs, in dormitories, because they come from far away, sometimes over 2,000 kilometres. Their dialects come from different regions. They work tirelessly with the hope of one day having children, buying a house or starting their own business. Friendships and romances fold and unfold as the seasons pass. Geographical dispersion, financial instability, and economic and family pressures ravish their innocence and youth. Wang Bing will spend a year with them in Zhili: at work, at home, on the Internet, every day of their professional, romantic relationships and friendships.

Production

The film was shot in the Chinese province of Zhejiang, from 2014 to 2019. Wang Bing shot the film in the Zhili, a manufacturing town in

City. Zhili is the same location where Wang Bing shot his 2016 film ''Bitter Money''. ''Youth (Spring)'' also covers the same subject – young workers in the textile workshops. However, the films do not focus on the same people. There were six people shooting, three at the same time, with three cameras, to compensate for the city's sizeable area and the film's many characters. Wang Bing devoted himself to the project, living for several years in a nearby town. He struggled for the first three months, but eventually befriended the local business managers, who were largely preoccupied with their daily lives. Provided the production would not disturb the running of their businesses, they did not object to the film or what would or would not be shown of the working conditions of their employees."Wang Bing: Man in Black et Jeunesse" Interview by Charlotte Garson in Paris on 30 Janvier 2023. Interpreter: Bingyuan Xu. ''

Cahiers du Cinéma ''Cahiers du Cinéma'' (, ) is a French film magazine co-founded in 1951 by André Bazin, Jacques Doniol-Valcroze, and Joseph-Marie Lo Duca.Itzkoff, Dave (9 February 2009''Cahiers Du Cinéma Will Continue to Publish''The New York TimesMacnab, Ge ...

''. No. 796. p. 16 ''Youth (Spring)'' the first entry in a trilogy of films that follow the same characters over an extended period of time. Wang Bing filmed the people at their workplace, but also followed some of them in the opposite direction to their province of origin, to celebrate

Chinese New Year Chinese New Year is the festival that celebrates the beginning of a New Year, new year on the traditional lunisolar calendar, lunisolar and solar Chinese calendar. In Sinophone, Chinese and other East Asian cultures, the festival is commonly r ...

with their families. In an interview with ''

'' on 30 January 2023, Wang Bing estimated the trilogy would run for approximately nine hours and forty minutes, and assured that 10 hours would be the limit. The film is produced by House on Fire, Gladys Glover and CS Production, in co-production

Arte France Cinéma Arte (; (), sometimes stylized in lowercase or uppercase in its logo) is a European public service channel dedicated to culture. It is made up of three separate companies: the Strasbourg-based European Economic Interest Grouping ARTE, plus ...

, Les Films Fauves (Luxembourg), Volya Films (Netherlands), Eastern-Lion Pictures and Culture Media Co., Beijing Contemporary Art Foundation, and Le Fresnoy - Studio national des arts contemporains.

Release

''Youth (Spring)'' was selected to compete for the Palme d'Or at the

2023 Cannes Film Festival The 76th annual Cannes Film Festival was a film festival that took place from 16 to 27 May 2023. Swedish filmmaker Ruben Östlund served as jury president. With the French film ''Anatomy of a Fall'' winning the Palme d'Or, the festival's top pr ...

, where it had its world premiere on 18 May 2023. It was also invited at the

28th Busan International Film Festival 8 (eight) is the natural number following 7 and preceding 9. In mathematics 8 is: * a composite number, its proper divisors being , , and . It is twice 4 or four times 2. * a power of two, being 2 (two cubed), and is the first number of t ...

in 'Icon' section and was screened on 5 October 2023. The film was theatrically released in the Netherlands on 16 November 2023 by Cinema Delicatessen, and in France on 3 January 2024 by Les Acacias. International sales are handled by Pyramide International, who will sell the next two parts of the trilogy.

Reception

Critical response

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 85% based on 34 reviews, with an average rating of 7.2/10. The website's critics consensus reads: "''Youth (Spring)'' presents an earnest and poignant -- if somewhat repetitive -- look at the experiences of Chinese garment workers." On Metacritic, the film has a weighted average score of 74 out of 100, based on 14 critic reviews, indicating "generally favorable" reviews.

Accolades

References

External links

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Youth (Spring)
' at Festival de Cannes website {{Portal bar, China, France, Luxembourg, Netherlands, Film, 2020s 2023 films 2023 documentary films 2020s Mandarin-language films Films directed by Wang Bing Chinese documentary films French documentary films Luxembourgian documentary films Dutch documentary films Films about labour Films about social issues Films set in factories Arte France Cinéma films Films shot in Zhejiang