Asian Film Awards Academy

A young man, Jian, travels from Hong Kong to Liuzhou in China to visit his aging father who runs a spicy noodles shop with his caregiver and occasional noodle cook, Ah Ping. She fears that Jian will eventually take over the eatery but is unaware that he can only taste sweet, sour and bitter flavours but not hot spicy chili peppers, a crucial ingredient in his father’s signature dish. When Jian reconnects with his childhood friend, now a striking woman working at the local market, their passionate encounter reawakens his senses restoring his ability to taste hot peppers.

At the end of summer, a group of friends bid farewell to their childhood with a final football match and embark on a daring escapade, each about to embark on a different path in life.

In the harsh winter of Inner Mongolia, two young men, Aoqi and Chaligan, spend their days trapped in a dim, cramped room. The desolation of their existence drives them to hatch a plan to scrape together money and flee south. Thus begins their journey between frostbitten cities and the vast, unforgiving grasslands of their homeland.