THE BEST IS YET TO COME, directed by a young Chinese director Wang Jing based on a true story, was nominated for best film of the Horizons Award at the 77th Venice International Film Festival. Later on，came the news that this film had been chosen to be aired at the Toronto International Film Festival. Produced by Momo Pictures Ltd. and Shanghai Fabula Entertainment Ltd., starring Wang Yiquan and Zhou Yemang, this film has Bai Ke, Miao Miao, and Zhang Songwen as its leading actors, Jia Zhangke, Qin Hailu, and Fox as its guest actors.
This film was based on a true story. It recorded the times of 2003 in which China was experiencing radical changes. An inexperienced intern reporter working at a newspaper office attempts to change 10 million people’s lives through a piece of news. He is Han Dong, a 26-year-old from the north east of China, who hasn’t even completed his senior school. Regardless of his family’s opposition, he quits his secure job at his hometown and drifts to Beijing. By chance, Han Dong meets a noted reporter Huang Jiang, who gave him the opportunity to work at the newspaper office as an intern. It was an era where internet was still in its infancy and traditional media industry was flourishing. Whatever your background is, as long as you are competent for your work, you will be promoted. Thanks to the experience he accumulates at work, Han Dong gains a foothold among numerous interns from prestigious schools with a professional education background. At the time his three-month internship is about to come to an end, a piece of news about an HBV carrier having a substitute to go for his/her physical examination gives Han Dong the opportunity to become a regular reporter. As the investigation goes deeper, some new findings make him withdraw the contribution, which is extremely important to his career, at the last minute of handing in. This makes Han Dong lose the opportunity and his mentor’s misunderstanding and the hard life turns his life into distress. This original inspirational film raised empathy among Beijing drifters. When talking about the film, director Wang Jing said, “Most of the characters and the story of the film are based on reality. It tells how a young man deal with the relationship between himself and others, between his heart and the world.”
The shooting work of THE BEST IS YET TO COME ended in January 2020. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, director Wang Jing and the editor were stuck at home 1,300 km apart. So, most of the editing work was done through online communication. Wang Jing said, “Our country is developing at such a rapid speed that when I look back at images that were shot about only a decade ago, I feel they were enormously strange. The urban space has changed drastically, so did people’s lifestyle. The reason I choose to focus my camera lens on people’s faces is because I believe the facial expressions of longing, hesitation, pain, and dignity should be the clearest part that the times retained.”
Wang Jing, director of THE BEST IS YET TO COME, is a graduate of the Directing Department of Beijing Film Academy. Since he joined Jia Zhangke’s film team in 2020, he has been working as the team’s executive director. His representative works are MR. TREE, XIAO YU, THE CONFORMIST, FORGETTING TO KNOW YOU, MOUNTAINS MAY DEPART, ASH IS PUREST WHITE, etc. Producer of the film, Jia Zhangke, the well-known director not only played a guest role in the film, but also joined hands with the top film production team “Jiajiaban”, with whom he has collaborated in many works, to ensure the successful production of THE BEST IS YET TO COME. The team members of “Jiajiaban” include photography director Yu Liwei, art director Liu Weixin, recording director Zhang Yang, lighting director Huang Zhiming, modeling director Li Hua, and editing director Ma Xiu.