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Never Too Late
China | 2024 | 81 min | Documentary / Drama / Family / Romance | Mandarin Chinese / Hunan Dialect
Director: YANG Lizhu
Screening Time：10/19/2025
4:40 pm-6:01 pm & 30min online Q&A
1st. Feature
North American Premiere
Synopsis:
Deng Guiying and Yang Qiaoyuan have been separated for more than thirty years, and they have settled down in one south and one north of their respective units. The two people with vastly different personalities argued as soon as they met, and they finally divorced at the age of eighty. Nevertheless, Deng Guiying occasionally visits Yang Qiaoyuan. Under the curiosity and step-by-step exploration of their granddaughter, the dusty past and the overlooked inner side of each of them were gradually uncovered. As time passed, Deng Guiying developed Alzheimer's disease and her memory deteriorated. Yang Qiaoyuan also passed away in 2017. At the end of her life and memories, Deng Guiying forgot many things, including the conflicts she had with her husband.
*Validated parking by the theater at the Trader Joe, 9290 Culver Blvd, Culver City, CA 90232
Trailer
Film Still
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About The Director
YANG Lizhu
A documentary director, graduated from the Beijing Film Academy in 2016, majoring in photography. She participates the exchange program at the Documentary Workshop with Shixin University in Taiwan. Since 2020, she works as an independent documentary director, working on commercial projects as well as indie documentaries.
Director's Statement
The driving force behind the filming of this film originated from my desire to understand why my grandmother divorced at the age of 80. I couldn't get a specific answer from my grandmother from beginning to end. Perhaps, a traditional woman born in the 1930s who didn't recognize a single word didn't know what the driving force behind this behavior was. In this process, I saw my grandmother confront her two biggest regrets in life in a stubborn and powerless way - the lack of freedom in marriage and love, and the unequal rights of men and women. Unable to express herself verbally, she took the action of divorce by example. In my opinion, my grandmother's divorce is a reflection of her frustration with life and the release of her inner emotions in her later years, which is also reflected in my grandfather. The film seems to depict the trivial daily life of the family, but these daily lives always revolve around the regrets and pursuits of life for my grandparents. Therefore, instead of being a story about me pursuing my grandparents and why they divorced at the age of 80, it is more like a story about two elderly people living for themselves for a short period of time at the end of their lives.
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