Big World, China, Diana Lin, drama, Jackson Yee, Jiang Qinqin, movies, reviews, Yang Lina, Yue Xiaojun, Zou Chengyong
April 20, 2025
by Carla Hay
“Big World” (2024)
Directed by Yang Lina
Mandarin with subtitles
Culture Representation: Taking place in an unnamed city in China, the dramatic film “Big World” features an-all Asian cast of characters representing the working-class and middle-class and wealthy.
Culture Clash: A 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy dreams of going to college so he can become a teacher while he goes through various ups and downs in his relationships with his mother and grandmother.
Culture Audience: “Big World” will appeal primarily to people who are interested in dramas about disabled people and their families.
“Big World” is uneven and a little too long. However, it’s a likable drama about a 20-year-old man with cerebral palsy and his relationships with his grandmother, his mother, and a possible girlfriend. The movie handles disability issues realistically by showing the compassion and prejudice that disabled people experience.
Directed by Yang Lina and written by You Xiaoying, “Big World” (whose total running time is 132 minutes) has a misleading trailer than makes the movie look more comedic than it really is. There are also huge parts of the storyline that are not seen in the trailer, which makes it look like the movie is mostly about the main character trying to find acceptance in a music group where his grandmother is a member. “Big World” is about much more than Chunhe’s role in the music group. It’s his coming-of-age story where he learns about self-acceptance and self-confidence.
“Big World” (which takes place in an unnamed city in China) begins by showing protagonist Lin Chunhe (played by Jackson Yee), a young man with cerebral palsy, on the rooftop of the apartment building where he lives. He’s writing his last will and testament. Chunhe is not suicidal but he believes his life expectancy won’t be as long other people’s.
Chunhe lives with his prickly single mother Chen Lu (played by Jiang Qinqin), but his life will soon be brightened by the return of his beloved grandmother Chen Suqun (played by Diana Lin), who is Lu’s mother. For the past year, Suqun was at a senior living home, but she has come back to live with Chunhe and Lu because Lu asked her to help take care of Chunhe.
Lu often acts like Chunhe is a burden. By contrast, Suqun treats Chunhe with unconditional love and respect. Suqun encourages Chunhe’s dream to apply to a place called Normal University because he wants to eventually become a teacher. Lu discourages this dream because she says the university is too far away (about 90 minutes by train) from where they live.
Chunhe has some unusual quirks (for example, he likes to sleep next to a life-sized model skeleton in his bed), but he is generally a sweet person who is very perceptive and polite. Chunhe doesn’t give up easily when people tell him that he can’t do something. But he has moments where he naturally gets depressed.
And he still has emotional scars from being rejected by his parents in some way. His father (played by Yue Xiaojun) abandoned the family when Chunhe was a child. His mother never physically abandoned Chunhe but she’s often cold and distant to him.
One of the most impactful scenes in the movie is when Chunhe remembers an incident that happened when he was about 7 or 8 years old. He hid in a suitcase in a bedroom in his home, and his parents thought he went missing. While hiding in the suitcase in a bedroom, Chunhe overheard his parents talking about him. Lun asks Chunhe’s father, “If we don’t find him, wouldn’t our lives be better?”
Near the beginning of the movie, Chunhe turns 20 years old. Suqun has a small birthday party for him where she has invited four members of her musical group. Suqun is the main organizer of the group, which is a singing choir with backup musicians.
The group meets in a nearby park and has been invited to perform in the city of Xin’an. There’s one big problem. The group’s drummer Lao Diao (played by Zou Chengyong) has suddenly quit because he feels disrespected. Diao tells Suqun he no longer wants to be a part of the group because no one in the group has gone to his son’s supermarket, like Diao requested.
And faster than you can say “doting grandmother,” Suqun suggests Chunhe as the group’s new drummer. Never mind that Chunhe hasn’t played the drums since he was in kindergarten. Suqun and Chunhe want to prove that he’s up for the challenge.
Chunhe’s role in the musical group is not really the main focus of the story. Subplots that are not shown in the trailer include Chunhe’s infatuation with a young woman named Yaya (played by Zhou Yutong), whom he meets one day in the park when her frisbee lands near him. Lu also becomes pregnant (the father of the child is never seen or mentioned in the movie), but she wants to keep the pregnancy a secret from Chunhe for as long as possible.
Yee (who does not have cerebral palsy in real life) does an admirable job in the lead role. Lin is outstanding as lively and inspirational Suqun. Although the movie shows Chunhe’s relationships with the three main women in his life, his relationship with his grandmother Suqun is the heart and soul of the movie. Some of the movie’s subplots could have been handled better, but “Big World” brings out emotions in all the right places and is a memorable film to watch for anyone looking for a good story about family love and overcoming life’s challenges.
China Film Co. released “Big World” in select U.S. cinemas on April 18, 2025. The movie was released in China on December 27, 2024.