It's getting late. He couldn't be coming now.
Airplane, airplane! Come take us back home in the mountains!
Their cars are here.
An important leader has arrived.
Who?
Premier Wen Jiabao.
Hey, we too could go shake hands with Premier Wen!
An important leader has arrived.
Down there... but we can't see it.
You can't see it either where you're standing.
I'm still in Beichuan!
The road conditions in Mianyang are bad.
We are stuck here.
We don't know how to get over there.
They say there's the plague!
They're afraid of infection.
What can we do if they don't allow us to go?
Those cars are very ordinary.
They're important people!
You're joking.
Their lives are more important than ours.
I'm still in Beichuan,
we can't leave now.
As far as Leaders are concerned,
whatever happens
they still treat us like fools.
How could they know whether we're well or not?
Premier Wen should go really among the earthquake victims in order to know.
Why isn't he meeting with the people?
He should meet the earthquake victims,
talk to us,
and listen first-hand to what we say.
Are you waiting till dark to let us go?
If we let you go, they might punish us.
In fact, we're supposed to let no one pass.
We only ate this morning.
We haven't eaten anything since then.
People are forbidden to pass through here, right?
No one can go into the town.
I'm leaving.
We still have a long way to go.
Where are you going?
I'm going home.
Where are you going?
Anyue.
It's getting dark.
It's ok now for the Leader?
His car has already left.
Oh, we still have to wait and wait.
You have to wait for permission from high-level to pass.
No permission, no pass.
You people are blocking our way.
Our words don't count here.
We just follow orders.
We have to overcome obstacles one by one.
The Party's glory illuminates my heart.
In the old society, I was enslaved and whipped.
My poor mother had no way but to weep.
The Communist Party called upon me to undertake the revolution.
Liu Song, ask him to back up the car!
Leader Tan Li is coming soon.
Tan Li. Tan Li is coming soon.
My shirt is pure cotton, it doesn't crinkle.
Members of the Communist Party are role models,
they should play an exemplary role
and unite with the people of the disaster zone.
With the support of the military and the rest of the country,
we will rebuild the disaster zone.
Shall we?
I hold meetings twice a day.
We are trying to organize the institutions
in the villages and the towns, make them operational again.
They're getting back into operation.
Things are getting back in order. This is a community.
Is it its administrative point?
Yes, it's responsible for distributing goods and materials.
Making your own meal?
Yes.
You got the distribution of instant noodles, right?
Are you tired of eating instant noodles?
You're cooking a meal, now? May I have a look?
Yes.
You're boiling meat.
Yes.
Where did you get the meat?
I rode my bike to Mianzhu to buy it.
I bought it today.
You eat better than us.
All thanks to the government and our leaders.
You've contributed a lot to us,
to the people in the disaster area.
We're very moved by your support.
It's our duty to do so.
Are you from the town or...
Yes.
from the town.
Your houses are destroyed?
All destroyed.
In this town,
underneath, everything is destroyed.
Are there deaths or wounded in your family?
They are ok.
Only my eldest sister was hurt in the leg.
I see, there's still someone injured in your family.
Safety first.
My tent is set up over there.
Which one? The white one?
Oh, the white one.
I stay with my sister.
Take care of your sister.
Ok.
Gradually, with the help of our government,
with the help of the whole country,
we'll try to make sure you have cooked food soon.
Thank you. We're grateful to you, leaders.
Ok.
No.1 08.
No.1 08 five!
No.132, leave it if no one answers. Just leave it.
No.134,
six more!
I'll get six.
Six more, count it and see if it's enough.
Count the number of chopsticks.
We haven't washed the bowls.
They haven't come yet. Old Pan and others are there.
Ask him to come back.
Otherwise I will ask someone else.
Ok.
Moreover,
two of us haven't come back yet.
It should be eight.
Who'd like to have some soup? There's some rice soup.
Stand in line.
I'm the first, someone jumped the queue.
One person, one ladle. No more.
Give me more.
It's too little,
give me more vegetables.
No.
Give me more!
No, go, go!
You can't give them too much rice.
They'll throw it away if they can't finish.
It'd be a waste.
Give just the amount you did just now.
Lift it up.
Fuck!
It's been four days since they died.
Can you imagine, it gets me mad.
Our two kids didn't even get to call ''mom'' and were gone.
Just think, she was already very pregnant,
he had to take care of her.
My son Yang Yong'r, if he jumped from the window,
he'd still be alive.
He couldn't have run by himself.
He couldn't have left his wife behind.
If our second son Yang Bing didn't run fast, he'd be hit too.
He climbed onto the ginkgo tree
and held the tree tightly.
You know, the house fell into the courtyard.
The courtyard is very large.
It fell crashing down with a thunderous noise.
It was terrible!
Yang Bing was so scared that he had goosebumps on his face for three days.
He's only been getting better last 2 days. He's been having nightmares every night.
The night before, he shouted in his dreams:
Yang Yong, don't go there-- it'll crush you--run fast!
Hi, your son Yang Bing is coming up.
Ask him to wait for us.
Help us carry the clothes up later.
You have to go back to sell pigs.
Then come back and carry them.
We are washing slowly. You won't be able to wait that long.
Which way?
So terrible.
It took us more than half a month to reach here on foot.
We can't afford to repair the road, we have to protect our lives first.
We need water and the road.
We need to repair the road.
No water, no rice. It's terrible.
Walk this way, it's better over there.
It's hard to walk over there.
Come here, it's easier to walk here.
Liu Shuju,
Yes?
Come, let me help you.
Come over
No brush, no basin. How can we wash?
Let's rest after we get uphill.
We realized it was an earthquake, shit!
It was too late to run.
That's probably what happened to our two.
If we had fallen asleep, we wouldn't know what had happened.
When we woke up, we realized it was terrible.
It would be terrible if you didn't wake up.
I don't know why I didn't think about running!
Go!
Let's go first.
Look, three of them died over there.
My son, my daughter-in-law, their baby all got hit.
Some pigs too died.
We wanted the government to fix the road.
We have to grab any chance to earn some money.
The government didn't allow us to repair the road.
We told them,
''you have to help us repair the road.''
We are farmers,
we only want to grow our crops.
The government says they want to settle us at Hongkou
If we move there, who will take care of the crops in the field?
What'd we eat in town?
Here we can build a little shelter, fix the water and the road.
We can take care of the peach trees,
there'll be no fruits this year, we'll see next year, we'll take care of them.
How much food are you preparing?
Enough for these people.
I miss them everyday.
They're on my mind every instant...
I have no appetite.
I've been missing them all day.
They shouldn't have slept upstairs that day.
If they were downstairs, nothing'd have happened.
At least they could have escaped.
Right?
They got their heads crushed.
People say we're no good, that's why our kids died.
I also have a daughter. She's seventeen.
We had a chat just now.
She once studied in Huayang.
We had no money, she dropped out of high school after a year.
We have three children.
It took a lot of money to build our house.
We have no money left.
Poor pig!
Make a carrier for it.
Make a carrier.
Poor pig
We didn't feed it over ten days.
Fuck!
Come, drive it over here.
Give us fifty yuan more and we call it quits.
If not, we won't sell.
What? Our people helped you carry the pigs here,
we're all in the same boat.
Fuck, now you say you don't want to sell anymore!
We'd settled on 500 each.
Not selling anymore? What're you saying? I don't care what you think.
Twelve pieces, I don't care what you said.
It's a money-losing business to buy your pigs. You should give money back to me.
What are you talking about?
I give you these pigs for cheap.
We've settled on a few hundred yuan.
You have gone too far!
What do you want to do?
We did the moving, we did the chasing.
Didn't I participate?
Don't make trouble for a few yuan.
Stop, let it go.
I came here to talk to your boss.
Why not talk to God?
Fuck.
Which is more important, your money or your life?
The earthquake happened.
No one could have predicted it.
You're just asking for trouble. I don't want to talk to you.
If you think I should be responsible for this case, you can take me to court.
Then I'll make whatever compensation necessary. I won't say anything.
We will tell this to the journalists.
You can't make excuses to shirk responsibilities.
You should have informed us that you sent them to work in Beichuan.
Then we could have gone there to rescue them.
Even if we couldn't have helped much, at least we'd have tried.
We wouldn't have complained if you had informed us in time.
Our people worked for you.
You didn't even inform the workers
and their families.
It's completely your fault.
Old Xiao, why do you say we went there on the third day?
We went there on that very same day in the afternoon.
We just couldn't reach it.
On the second day, we went there again, still couldn't reach there.
My old grandpa was also inside.
There were people missing in every family.
Every one was worried sick.
Isn't it true?
I was hit in the leg at that time.
I could hardly walk at all, Zhao knows that.
I asked my brother to inform you all.
Old Zhao said that we could if there was electricity.
As a boss, it was the least you could do.
You should have called people together to rescue the others.
I did go.
But they stopped me halfway in Yong'an.
They stopped us.
I walked here,
near Drum town.
I had no way but to go back.
couldn't walk any more.
You should take some responsibility,
as well as these people.
You should have called people to rescue them,
it's your responsibility as a boss.
You shouldn't have stayed there
and ignored what happened around you!
You have dozens of workers.
Such a big deal.
How's it possible you didn't send someone there?
Secondly, concerning Beichuan
you should also have informed their families in time
and told them to go rescue.
You said you sent them to Beichuan.
Did you inform them?
but I didn't know details of the situation. I only knew the situation in Drum town.
How could I know the situation in Beichuan? I wasn't in Beichuan that day.
Can't blame anyone, that's true.
But when people are dying, you should inform their families first
and call people to help.
This is your most basic duty.
Were they all in Beichuan?
Yes, in Beichuan.
This is a most basic but very important duty.
The man who was here just now, did his wife work for that boss?
Yes
The boss had a branch in the county town of Beichuan.
oh yes
But now he says...
Seems the guy was saying they could have saved someone but they didn't.
That's what he meant.
But people were forbidden to go in at that time.
How could they have gone to rescue the others?
To put it bluntly: the guy just wants the boss to give him money.
Right.
That's what he wants.
That's not right of him.
What about those guys who joined him later?
They were there to give him physical support if necessary.
The boss may have to file for bankruptcy!
Pick it up! Pick it up !
350 Jin.
355 Jin.
1 00 Jin.
200 Jin.
300 Jin.
350 Jin.
Five Jin.
355 Jin, total.
Come, here you are.
I don't want to carry it anymore.
Why?
One yuan and twenty cents.
Ok. One yuan and twenty cents.
I don't want to carry it anymore.
You're tired of carrying it?
It's too heavy, the basket is broken.
Come, come,
come, put it down.
There's nothing else here
Let's go, forget it.
Never mind the things here
Let's go down.
Be careful.
Watch out, over there
Is Grandpa Li's family ok?
Grandpa Li who once lived there.
The man selling the electric appliances is his son.
Do you know them?
This seems to be their stockroom.
Did Li's family live here?
How is his family?
Good.
Should we ask them over to have a look?
Two old folks once lived here.
How are the two old folks there?
They're ok.
The other two old folks?
Good.
Smells so bad.
This was their stockroom.
Feels like it's shaking again.
No, it isn't.
This is a steel rod, you were stepping on a board.
Those people don't look like the owners of the stockroom.
What were they doing here?
I'm going to see if anyone's stealing my things!
It bumped into you.
Hurry up!
Go
The policeman did right.
It drove us crazy.
If there's no one left at your home, they come pick your locks
just take your things and run.
Aren't they ashamed?
We're all victims of this disaster.
We have nothing left at all, not even our pants!
They shouldn't have come picked locks! Taking some food is ok.
The people wouldn't complain if they only stole food.
Report it to the police?
The police are so busy rescuing people,
how could they find time to deal with this kind of cases?
If you want to get compensation from the state,
you have to find the criminal first.
God, which one?
Which one, I ask you?
Some carry what they've stolen by trucks.
some by tricycle.
I only caught one person, he rode a tricycle.
When he returned my things to me,
I couldn't possibly hit him with a stone, right?
Though I really wanted to,
when I saw his face, I found out he was someone I knew.
How could I punish him?
I can't go and kill him!
What can I do? I can't crack it open.
Normally it shouldn't have been a problem to live here.
But government didn't check the houses and just tore them down.
No one came from the government to check.
The village chief and secretary asked us to remove our furniture.
Then they sent someone to tear down the houses.
No one has told us if it's a dangerous house or not.
They just tore them down directly.
Without even any technical certification.
We ordinary people think we can live in them,
because these houses are not cracked.
What's your plan for the future?
What plan?
We have to wait until the government has resettled us.
How can I make any plans now?
What plan? What plan can I have?
No plan at all.
I have no way to make a living,
but to collect steel scraps. We don't know what to do at all.
What can I do now?
The government won't provide any more food after three months.
We still have to buy rice, right?
They called all the farmers in Beichuan and in the mountains to move to Drum town.
They razed the fields and tore down the houses.
Where should we stay?
We've lost our stable life.
Listen,
the temporary houses are also ok if they're built well.
They should undertake building reconstruction
one by one.
They should tear down the houses where they are planning to rebuild.
No one is against that.
But they tore down our house suddenly
and rebuild everything at the same time...
but in how many years will the project be finished?
Us farmers just need a quick answer.
We wouldn't make trouble for the government in that case.
The government is incapable of restoring public order.
Though the military police is sent here,
people are still stealing aluminum alloy,
folding doors,
and other things on the street
why doesn't the government interfere at all?
Look, it weighs sixty jin.
Are you buying?
If not, I will sell it tomorrow.
My baby, I drew it, the constellation and the moon.
I stopped the earthquake
from happening last time!
Look at my drawings.
Here's my drawing.
I drew it at noon yesterday.
There is a green sea-turtle.
God Erlang Yang Ji caught it with a fork.
It's tied up by iron chains, so it can't cause trouble.
This is the Scheme of the Universe.
Was it a waterlily or a lotus?
Is it the lotus you grow here?
The waterlily?
The lotus of the Buddha?
I put the lotus over there but it didn't do the trick.
The turtle was still making trouble.
The lotus is still there.
Is it the lotus with the roots
or a man-made lotus?
No, it's the real lotus of the Guanyin Buddha.
Have you seen it?
I saw the red water and white smoke
Bang, the white smoke rose up.
Soon it got dark on Earth.
What did the earth-gods do this time?
The Earth-God?
He was destroyed during the earthquake.
No one worships him nowadays, only me.
What did he do this time?
Why didn't he stop the earthquake from happening?
He should have stopped it.
That is my first question.
There's no Earth-God Temple here.
He complains that people didn't repair it.
Why didn't he stop the earthquake from happening?
He didn't answer my question.
Whatever the reason,
I have no money, the Earth-God has no money.
He says he doesn't care what the reason is.
I have no money, neither does he.
What a tragic scene!
There are only some slippers left in our dormitory,
no clothes left.
Come, take this bag.
Uncle, we're leaving.
ok.
Uncle, we're leaving. Bye!
Ok, take care.
Thanks.
You have to be careful here too.
There are aftershocks.
Beichuan Secondary School, Sichuan
Are you filming this?
Are you a student at this school?
No, my younger brother is.
How is your younger brother?
We haven't found him yet.
Where is his dormitory room?
Maybe go ask some other students, they should know.
It's here.
See if his name is written there.
No name, these clothes are his.
Look at the clothes.
Yes, it's right here.
These are his bed covers.
These are his clothes.
This is his bed.
Isn't that so? Absolutely so.
I recognize this cotton mattress.
Look, here are his clothes.
Yeah.
Oh, his clothes.
Yes ! It's his bed.
His things.
Yes, these are his things.
Let's take these clothes home.
No need.
Keep it as a souvenir.
Are these his glasses?
God, such a big tragedy!
I was too scared to move that day.
What should we do now?
It's hard to rebuild a temple.
We're so helpless!
Doggie, don't bark.
I'll bring some food for you next time.
You're lucky.
you've survived.
Doggie!
If we're well,
we'll bring some food for you.
Just stay here, tell us when you need help.
We feel so sad looking at this!
Such a big disaster has befallen us now!
Poor doggie!
Doggie, don't cry, don't be upset!
We'll see you next time!
God!
We've been working hard
and living a frugal life.
You're early.
Yes, a little early.
We came here at eight
by motorcycle.
The Buddha Douwu Xiantian is all crushed,
what a shame!
People who came to repair the washroom asked us
to cover the Buddha with an umbrella.
But we don't know what to do.
It's crushed, what can we do with it?
Part of our village was also crushed.
Only after we rebuild the village can we repair the temple.
Even if we harvested our crops, where would we store them?
Some people say the Buddha can protect people from disaster
but he is unable to protect himself!
The Buddha has been destroyed by the earthquake,
we can't blame the gods.
Even the gods can't avoid disasters, you know?
Even they can't avoid disasters,
just like ordinary people on earth.
The earthquake is a matter
between Heaven and Earth,
you know?
Our children live here.
My son and his wife sell meat.
They're butchers.
The one sleeping in the shelter is my elder son. He's disobedient.
He soils the bed.
After he graduated from middle school,
at first he was ok,
but later he became rebellious.
I asked him to do something to make a living,
I fought with him, he was very upset.