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爷爷奶奶那些事

BEIJING HUGOEAST MEDIA CO., LTD. - as SALES All rights

Documentary - Completed 2024

In a small country town of Huaihua city, Hunan province, China, Deng divorces her husband Yang at the age of 80 after 60 years of marriage. Family and neighbors are shocked, why now? In order to understand the story behind the divorce, their granddaughter Yang Lizhu comes into their life.

- Year of production
- 2024
- Genres
- Documentary
- Countries
- CHINA
- Languages
- MANDARIN
- Synopsis
- Deng and Yang are married for 60 years. Now both in their 80’s, they want to get a divorce. They met the day they got married. As the eldest son, grandpa Yang is supposed to inherit family’s printing and dyeing mill. While grandma Deng helps in the family owned shop. Their marriage is made through a matchmaker, and decided by their parents. Once married, they both work in the local ceramics factory but in different departments. Grandpa Yang is a worker, grandma Deng works in the offices. During one time of the many quarrel they have, divorce is mentioned. Divorce and at this age, is breaking news in the small country town of Huaihua, in the province of Hunan they live in. Their four children and none of their neighbors understand their decision. One of their four grandchildren, Lizhu,unfolds the bigger story behind the news.
  Grandma Deng suffers Alzheimer; she lives with her eldest daughter Dezhen. Her memory is getting worse and worse. She cannot remember if she already dined, cannot remember which floor she lives on. Meanwhile, she thinks clearly when talking about the seller that she was once in love with.Even when she is confused about her granddaughter’s name, she still has a clear memory about how her parents forbid them from being together. She even tries once to take her to the place they met.
  Grandpa Yang lives along in a dilapidated house, an undisciplined life. He wearsclothes with patches, wakes up and sits cross-legged at 4am. He goes to the mountain carrying spring water, digs holes in the house, opens windows on the rooftop, and rebuilds the house. No one understands his way of life. Every time grandma Deng sees how dirty grandpa Yang is, she curses him with the loudest voice, until neighbors arrive to separate them.Grandpa Yang has nothing in common with the surrounding world. Reading and writing is his daily life. To Lizhu, he explains how he tries to escape the wedding without succeeding. Due to family pressure, he is not a Chinese Medicine Doctor, which was one of his biggest dreams. In letters to Lizhu, he confesses that grandma Deng sacrifices a lot to the family during their lives together. And he feels guilty about his lazy life.
  These two seemly strangers show different life memories at the end of their lives.