Youth (Hard Times)

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Youth (Hard Times)

2024

3h 46m

Documentary

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Popcornmeter

94%

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16 Reviews

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In YOUTH (HARD TIMES), individual and collective stories unfold in Zhili's textile workshops, becoming ever more dramatic as the seasons go by. Fu Yun keeps making mistakes and is mocked by her colleagues. Xu Wanxiang can't find his notebook, without which his boss refuses to pay him his wages. From atop a passageway, a group of workers watch their indebted boss beat up a supplier. In another workshop, the boss has taken off with all the money. The workers find themselves alone, robbed of the fruits of their labor. Hu Siwen tells the story of the 2011 Zhili riots: police brutality, imprisonment and fear. After bitter negotiations, the workers return home to celebrate the New Year.

David Katz

Sight & Sound

Dec 19, 2025

Hard Times doesn’t stand on its own as successfully as its more self-contained predecessor, but is an essential part of a triptych that establishes Wang as China’s foremost cine-sociologist.

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Nicolas Rapold

New York Times

Nov 5, 2024

Shot in a present-tense vérité style, it stitches together micro-stories into a larger narrative in which negotiation can’t undo exploitation. Some tales are mundane but maddening...

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Simon Abrams

RogerEbert.com

Nov 1, 2024

3.5/4

This one stands out not only because it’s the fittingly agonizing climax to Wang’s trilogy but also for its sheer wealth of heartbreaking and totally convincing details.

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Diane Carson

KDHX (St. Louis)

Jan 23, 2025

Living the hours of "Youth" brings this hard scrabble world to life and reminds me how fortunate we are in our comforts.

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Avi Offer

NYC Movie Guru

Oct 27, 2024

Patient audiences will be rewarded the most. What the film effectively sheds light on, though, is the sleaziness of the textile company that hired these young people who clearly work very hard.

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Dan Schindel

Hyperallergic

Oct 17, 2024

“Hard Times” is the “Youth” trilogy’s odd duck. Though there are no shared characters between the films, it is structurally identical to “Spring” … The heavy stylistic overlap between the two films makes “Hard Times” feel redundant.

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Bing Wang

Director

Bing Wang

Writer

Sonia Buchman

Producer

Hui Mao

Producer

Nicolas R. de la Mothe

Producer

Vincent Wang

Producer

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Synopsis

In YOUTH (HARD TIMES), individual and collective stories unfold in Zhili's textile workshops, becoming ever more dramatic as the seasons go by. Fu Yun keeps making mistakes and is mocked by her colleagues. Xu Wanxiang can't find his notebook, without which his boss refuses to pay him his wages. From atop a passageway, a group of workers watch their indebted boss beat up a supplier. In another workshop, the boss has taken off with all the money. The workers find themselves alone, robbed of the fruits of their labor. Hu Siwen tells the story of the 2011 Zhili riots: police brutality, imprisonment and fear. After bitter negotiations, the workers return home to celebrate the New Year.

Director: Bing Wang
Producer: Sonia Buchman, Hui Mao, Nicolas R. de la Mothe, Vincent Wang
Screenwriter: Bing Wang
Distributor: Icarus Films
Production Co: House on Fire, Gladys Glover Films, CS Production
Genre: Documentary
Original Language: Chinese
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 1, 2024, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Apr 17, 2025
Runtime: 3h 46m

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