Huangyan shenghuo (Big Little Things)

A seemingly perfect middle-class Chinese family faces an unprecedented situation when their daughter Lei brings a man home on New Year’s Eve to pretend to be her boyfriend. Her same-sex girlfriend’s unexpected visit intertwines her with a real intimacy crisis.

My same-sex partner Chun introduced me to her family as a friend. During the third visit, which was the third lie, her father realised our relationship first. I witnessed her family’s collapse and participated in their eventual reunion. I’ve been thinking about what made me compromise and allow her to lie in the first place. What if a lie meant for good ends up hurting your beloved the most? With Huangyan shenghuo, I want to explore the motivation behind our need to lie to gain intimacy.
In my upbringing in mainland China, love and deception are often painfully intertwined. We are taught that shielding our parents’ feelings is more important than living our truth. This film is my attempt to anatomise those secrets – and to witness what happens when the facade of the “perfect” family finally collapses.
This work is an exploration of the “violence of silence”. I wanted to capture the moment when the traditional collective – represented by the claustrophobic intimacy of a New Year’s dinner – collides with a modern hunger for authenticity. It is a study of the breaking point when a “white lie” transforms from a safety net into a cage.
Ultimately, the filmmaking process became an act of radical reconciliation. By casting my partner’s actual father, who lived through this betrayal in real life, the set became a space for a “dialogue through cinema”. The camera served as a bridge to cross a generational divide that words alone could not.

PRODUCTION 1:
Three Dots Films - Michelle ZHOU,
221 W dryden st, apt C
91202 Glendale, United States of America
Tel: +1 2137624015
E-mail: michellezt321@gmail.com
Web: http://www.threedotsfilms.com
Social Media: @big_little_things2026 - Instagram

PRODUCTION 2:
Snow Island Pictures Limited - Chun YU,
FLATD, 7/F, Shing Lee Commercial Building, 8 Wing Kut Street, Central
00000 Hong Kong, China
Tel: +1 2137624029
E-mail: yuzhchyu1107@gmail.com

WORLD SALES:
Moebius Entertainment - Fred Tsui
E-mail: fred.moebius@gmail.com

PRESS OFFICE:
Gloria Zerbinati
Tel: +33 7 86 80 02 82
E-mail: gloria.zerbinati@gmail.com