GREAT HAPPINESS is an ensemble movie centering on three good friends, who have grown up together in Xining, the capital of Qinghai province in the western part of China, and developed their own visions of a bright future in this developing and expanding city. Belonging to the generation born at the time of the One Child Policy, the three young men are confronted with triple challenges: the frustrations of fulfilling personal goals, the burden of supporting a large family and the overpowering social expectation.

Wang Yi’ao, the debutant screenwriter and director, creates an indelible picture of Chinese young people grappling with the fundamental question of existence.

Using the ubiquitous and homogenous high-rise buildings as the backdrop, GREAT HAPPINESS offers a visual critique of blind duplication and lifeless materialism that prevail in Chinese cities. The question posted is urgent: facing an era when everything new is copied- and-pasted, what can the one-child generation do?