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FARAMITA

BI AN

By Deane TOM

Drama - Pre-Production 2012

Faramita is distance. Two shores that can see each other but can’t touch each other.
Sometimes it’s visible, yet unreachable; sometimes it’s indiscernible, yet tantalizing.
Once you step on it, Faramita no longer exists.
Same as a region, as life, as a dream, as love…

- Year of production
- 2012
- Genres
- Drama, Romance
- Countries
- CHINA
- Languages
- Other, MANDARIN
- Duration
- 120 mn
- Director(s)
- Deane TOM
- Writer(s)
- Deane TOM
- Producer(s)
- Michelle MI (MZ Pictures)
- Synopsis
- The film begins in Veroni’s flashback. Eighteen years ago, she went to Paris from Shanghai to seek her career in fashion and had eventually become a top model. Eighteen years later when she was no longer young, she chooses to return to where she came from. She wishes to find a person to stay with till the end of her life. On the plane to Shanghai, Veroni sees an article on the magazine with the title of “The Man Who is Seeking Faramita”. She is deeply attracted by this photographer, Ji Feng, and his five years of journey. Back to Shanghai, Veroni opens a coffee shop and names it “Faramita”. At an autumn evening, the traveling bird flies into her real world. She falls in love with this man. Hence, Veroni thinks that her love could make Ji Feng stay. However, the bird flies away when the spring comes…. Since then, Veroni always sits in a corner in the shop after the sunset. Through the wine glass, she loosely studies the customers accompanied with the smell of matters; and from the fragments of their conversation, guesses the stories and desires hidden under their gorgeous outfits. In the night, she always comes back to Ji Feng’s photographs, and imagines the road he’s going through…
  On his 30th birthday, Ji Feng suddenly decides to abandon his comfortable life. Following the track of the traveling bird with his camera, he tastes the wind in the floating time and space. After another eighteen-years of lapse, he is back in his habitat. On his 36th birthday, he meets Veoni and falls in love with her. However, he takes off again in a lonely morning….
  While Veroni is wallowing in memories, Ji Feng is recording the true life of the people living by the divined mountains and pristine lakes along the Sichuan-Tibet Highway. On the way, he meets a fourteen years old Tibetan girl who takes care of her entire family; the Living Buddha who delivers all living creatures from torment; the Kham woman who has abandoned her husband and kid to elope with a Han man; the grandparents and grandchild who kneel along the way of pilgrimage; the reincarnated soul boy; the lonely master of celestial burial. He also meets the profiteer who trades the Han counterfeits to the Tibetan traditional goods. He witnesses the natural environment that is being corroding by the developing civilization and the convenient transportation.
  A month later, Ji Feng comes to the Tashihunpo Monastery and reaches the chained little door that is said to be the entrance of Shambhala. Yet the old Lama tells Ji Feng a real story about Shambhala. The old Lama takes him to the ghee lights and tells him, “you have already followed the path of your heart, and where you have left to go, is to the place where your body belongs.”
  Now Ji Feng finally understands that life contains only three words: Forbear, Mad, and Calm. After saying goodbye to the old Lama, Ji Feng immediately takes out the mobile phone from Veroni and calls this special line for the first time. Receiving Ji Feng’s call, Veroni is too excited to behave herself. She decides to make the trip to Tibet and meet with Ji Feng. When she comes to Lhasa, she realizes that the sacred city is now completely commercial. At the “Mount Qomolangma Base Camp”, a mountaineering fan who cannot afford the rent of mountaineering equipment tells everyone, “maybe after a few years, there will be a modern escalator going to the top of the mountain; all you need to have a dream-come-true will be a ticket.”Ji Feng tells Veroni that he now understands what Veroni said, “Sometimes what you see is not what you have thought about. Some hopes will become disappointments as you reach further.” He tells Veroni that he will return to Shanghai after he finishes his plan, and opens a photography bar to display all he works and wait for people to come for a drink.Veroni asks Ji Feng to take her to the magic door in Shigatse where Ji Feng has found his final home. As they arrive, they happen to catch the Shoton Festival and the “Buddha in the sunlight”, which is rare to see. In the sound of dharma-vessel, thousands of devout Tibetans and Lamas praise the Six-True-Words loudly. The spectacular scene astonishes both of them. The hundred-meter-long Tangka has covered the entire mountain top. Ji Feng says to Veroni, “Faith is the only thing to change the fickle reality.” Veroni looks at Ji Feng emotionally and says, “Love is also a kind of faith.”
  Veroni suddenly feels sick. They come to the temple to ask for help, and the Buddha doctor tells them that they are about to welcome a new life. Veroni decides to return to Shanghai immediately. She is willing to let Ji Feng continue his journey. She says to Ji Feng with appreciation, “Thank you for inviting me here, I was able to find my way to the Shambhala.”After saying goodbye to Veroni, Ji Feng travels through Bayi Town and comes to the place where lotus flowers bloom—Motuo, the only place in the world with no roads. He hears the purest melody. Three months later, a stranger walks into Veroni’s coffee shop. He says that his friends met Ji Feng as they were traveling through the Brahmaputra Grand Canyon. There was an avalanche. Ji Feng fell into the river as he was saving a team member. The rest people tried to find him but it was useless. Veroni opens the familiar backpack and finds a book of diary besides cameras and films. Veroni closes her eyes and says that Ji Feng will definite come back. Four years later, “Faramita Café” has turned into “Faramita Bar”. A little boy in jeans and cowboy boots is riding on a toy jeep in the shop with lots of photographs hanging on the wall. Veroni is sitting in a corner and playing Solitaire on her computer. An old dirty jeep rushes in and stops at the gate of the bar. A car door opens, and a pair of dirty cowboy boots steps out.