# So Long, My Son (地久天长)
**So Long, My Son** (地久天长) is a 2019 Chinese family drama directed by Wang Xiaoshuai that follows two couples, close friends and factory co-workers, across more than three decades of Chinese social change, from the early 1980s to the 2010s, with the country's one-child policy as its central historical backdrop.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) It premiered in the main competition of the 69th [Berlin International Film Festival](https://www.edgepedia.org/berlin-international-film-festival) on 14 February 2019, where Wang Jingchun and Yong Mei jointly won the Silver Bears for Best Actor and Best Actress, and it was released in mainland China on 22 March 2019.[2](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/2233824.shtml) • [3](https://sdaff.org/2019/movies/so-long-my-son/)
| Key fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Director and writers | Wang Xiaoshuai, co-written with A Mei (阿美)[4](https://movie.douban.com/subject/26715636//) |
| Running time | 185 minutes (international version); 175 minutes (domestic version)[4](https://movie.douban.com/subject/26715636//) |
| Release | Berlin premiere 14 February 2019; mainland China 22 March 2019[2](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/2233824.shtml) |
| Principal cast | Wang Jingchun (Liu Yaojun), Yong Mei (Wang Liyun), Qi Xi (Shen Moli), Wang Yuan (Liu Xing), Du Jiang (Shen Hao)[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) |
| Major awards | Silver Bears for Best Actor and Best Actress, 2019 Berlinale; Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay at the Golden Rooster Awards[3](https://sdaff.org/2019/movies/so-long-my-son/) • [5](https://www.psfilmfest.org/2020-ps-film-festival/film-finder/so-long-my-son) |
| Historical scope | Spans from the early 1980s to the 2010s, covering the one-child policy (introduced 1979, lasting until 2015) and the shift to a market economy[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) |
| Series position | Planned first part of a 'Homeland Trilogy' about China's past 40 years[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) |
| Mainland box office | 45.3019 million yuan[6](https://baike.so.com/doc/10044008-24922740.html) |
## Spoilers
### Story
The film centers on Liu Yaojun (Wang Jingchun) and Wang Liyun (Yong Mei), factory workers in northern China whose lives are closely bound to those of their friends and neighbors Shen Yingming and Li Haiyan. The two couples have sons born the same year, [Liu Xing](https://www.edgepedia.org/liu-xing) ("Xingxing") and Shen Hao ("Haohao"), who grow up as best friends.[7](https://blog.uclfilm.com/2020/01/29/so-long-my-son-review/) The tragedy that drives the story occurs when Xingxing drowns at a local reservoir after being goaded into swimming by Haohao, in an accident whose full circumstances are withheld until late in the film.[8](https://www.timeout.com/movies/so-long-my-son) • [9](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/so-long-my-son-di-jiu-tian-chang/)
Earlier, Liyun's pregnancy with a second child collides with the one-child policy: Haiyan, a factory official, forces her friend to comply with state policy and have an abortion, an act that plants lasting guilt in both families.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/04/so-long-my-son-review-china-film-drama-wang-xiaoshai) After the drowning, the grieving couple leave their factory jobs and move to the southern province of Fujian, where they adopt a boy whom they also name Xingxing; the adopted son, sensing he is second-best, rebels and eventually runs away.[8](https://www.timeout.com/movies/so-long-my-son) • [11](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/so-long-my-son-berlin-review/5137002.article) Their old friends, meanwhile, grow wealthy in the new market economy.[8](https://www.timeout.com/movies/so-long-my-son)
The film's ending returns the couple to their hometown for a reunion of the estranged friends, with the adopted son reappearing alongside a girlfriend and a note of renewal in a new generation.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) Reviewer Jonathan Romney notes a bitter irony beneath the reconciliation: Haiyan, who enforced the abortion on Liyun, later had a second child of her own, and her death from a brain tumor reads as entangled with her guilt.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy)
## Structure and style
**Fractured time.** The narrative zigzags repeatedly between decades, withholding key information and asking viewers to reconstruct who is who as characters age through makeup and changed bearing; two boys share the name Xingxing, and the English title itself is ambiguous about which son is being waved goodbye.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) • [11](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/so-long-my-son-berlin-review/5137002.article) Peter Bradshaw in *The Guardian* describes the film as audaciously structured in flashback and flashforward, with important details revealed only later.[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/04/so-long-my-son-review-china-film-drama-wang-xiaoshai)
The Scottish song "Auld Lang Syne," whose Chinese title 友谊地久天长 gives the film its [Chinese name](https://www.edgepedia.org/chinese-name), recurs as a musical motif of estrangement and reconciliation.[6](https://baike.so.com/doc/10044008-24922740.html) • [1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) Cinematographer Kim Hyun-seok contrasts the cramped, porous apartment blocks of the 1980s factory community with the couple's later home in Fujian, a cave-like workspace open to the elements and flooded after a rainstorm, its interior recalling the reservoir where Xingxing drowned.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy)
## Themes and historical setting
The film is at once a family saga and a social chronicle. It pinpoints China's economic changes and focuses especially on the personal effects of the one-child policy, which the Chinese government introduced in 1979 and which lasted until 2015.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) The couple suffer three losses: the death of their son, the forced abortion of a second child, and the departure of the adopted third.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) Political set pieces include the desolate ceremony at which Liyun and Yaojun receive their factory's 1986 award for family planning, and a factory boss addressing a workforce facing layoffs with rhetoric of shared sacrifice.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) In the final act, Yaojun waves at a Mao statue standing outside a shopping mall, a gesture several critics read as the film's summary of the Maoist legacy under commercial modernity.[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy) • [10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/04/so-long-my-son-review-china-film-drama-wang-xiaoshai)
Wang Xiaoshuai, a member of China's "Sixth Generation" of directors alongside [Jia Zhangke](https://www.edgepedia.org/jia-zhangke), came to international prominence with *[Beijing Bicycle](https://www.edgepedia.org/beijing-bicycle)* (2001); his earlier films include *[Shanghai Dreams](https://www.edgepedia.org/shanghai-dreams)* (2005) and *Red Amnesia* (2014).[3](https://sdaff.org/2019/movies/so-long-my-son/) • [5](https://www.psfilmfest.org/2020-ps-film-festival/film-finder/so-long-my-son) In interviews he described the film as drawing on the experience of his own generation, saying that several generations of Chinese lived through the one-child era and that the loss of a child takes a lifetime to resolve.[12](https://www.sbs.com.au/language/chinese/zh-hans/podcast-episode/zhuan-fang-wang-xiao-shuai-tan-de-jiu-tian-zhang-yu-ji-hua-sheng-yu-shi-dai-de-man-zhang-gao-bie/fik5v8iva) He announced a ten-year "Homeland Trilogy" plan in 2016, with *So Long, My Son* as its first part.[13](https://news.cri.cn/20190421/af2f9e6a-fee0-fceb-6930-acfc7a86df41.html)
## Production and release
The film was produced by Dongchun Films, the company Wang Xiaoshuai founded with producer [Liu Xuan](https://www.edgepedia.org/liu-xuan), announced at the 2016 Shanghai International Film Festival.[14](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2870223.html) Filming took place in Fujian, including Fuzhou and the Huangqi Peninsula in Lianjiang County.[2](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/2233824.shtml) Notably, the film received the "dragon seal," China's mark of censorship approval, and screened widely on Chinese screens, even though it does not conceal its political subject matter; *Le Monde* counted it as Wang's thirteenth feature and noted a three-month shoot followed by a year of postproduction.[15](https://mubi.com/en/notebook/posts/a-real-chinese-story-wang-xiaoshuai-discusses-so-long-my-son) • [16](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2019/07/03/wang-xiaoshuai-a-appris-a-jongler-avec-la-censure_5484751_3246.html) Its Berlinale premiere came in an edition marked by the last-minute withdrawal of two other Chinese films, *[One Second](https://www.edgepedia.org/one-second)* and *Better Days*, which Wang publicly regretted while stating his own film had followed all procedures.[17](https://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2019/02/14/so-long-my-son-di-jiu-tian-chang-press-conference-with-wang-xiaoshuai-du-jiang-ai-liya-yong-mei-wang-jingchun-qi-xi-zhao-yanguozhang-and-liu-xuan/)
## Reception
At the 69th Berlinale the film competed for the [Golden Bear](https://www.edgepedia.org/golden-bear) and won both acting Silver Bears, a double that Chinese commentary described as unprecedented for Chinese-language cinema at a major European festival.[4](https://movie.douban.com/subject/26715636//) • [18](https://culture.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0322/c1013-30990995.html) It later won Best Actor, Best Actress, and Best Screenplay at China's Golden Rooster Awards.[5](https://www.psfilmfest.org/2020-ps-film-festival/film-finder/so-long-my-son) On Rotten Tomatoes it holds a 100% Tomatometer from 36 reviews and a 95% audience score, with the critics consensus calling it "intimate in focus yet epic in size and scope."[19](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/so_long_my_son) On Douban it rates 8.0 from roughly 399,000 user ratings.[4](https://movie.douban.com/subject/26715636//)
Commercially, the film earned 45.3019 million yuan in mainland China, a modest figure given its Berlinale profile; Chinese press reported only about 30 million yuan in its first four days despite the "double Bear" publicity and a Douban score of 8.[6](https://baike.so.com/doc/10044008-24922740.html) • [20](https://epaper.lnd.com.cn/lswbepaper/pc/att/201903/27/b83f3dd0-a3c0-47da-a93f-1f50526e81c4.pdf) Critics were broadly positive: *Time Out* gave five stars and called it a "quiet epic,"[8](https://www.timeout.com/movies/so-long-my-son) *The Guardian* called it "an almost unbearably poignant, profound masterpiece,"[10](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/04/so-long-my-son-review-china-film-drama-wang-xiaoshai) and *Screen* praised its novelistic scope while noting that its fractured structure makes it a demanding watch.[11](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/so-long-my-son-berlin-review/5137002.article) The film began streaming in the United States on MUBI in 2024.[21](https://u.osu.edu/mclc/online-series/so-long-my-son/)
## References
1. [Jonathan Romney, "So Long, My Son review: this Chinese family saga counts the emotional cost of the one-child policy," Sight and Sound, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/sight-and-sound/reviews/so-long-my-son-review-this-chinese-family-saga-counts-emotional-cost-one-child-policy)
2. [地久天长 详细资料, 1905电影网](https://m.1905.com/m/film/info/2233824.shtml)
3. ["So Long, My Son," San Diego Asian Film Festival 2019](https://sdaff.org/2019/movies/so-long-my-son/)
4. [地久天长 (2019), 豆瓣电影](https://movie.douban.com/subject/26715636//)
5. ["So Long, My Son," Palm Springs International Film Festival 2020](https://www.psfilmfest.org/2020-ps-film-festival/film-finder/so-long-my-son)
6. [地久天长 (2019年王小帅执导电影), 360百科](https://baike.so.com/doc/10044008-24922740.html)
7. [Ellie Lachs, "'So Long, My Son' Review," UCL Film & TV Society Journal](https://blog.uclfilm.com/2020/01/29/so-long-my-son-review/)
8. [Dave Calhoun, "So Long, My Son review," Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/so-long-my-son)
9. ["So Long, My Son (Dì jiǔ tiān cháng)," Independent Cinema Office](https://www.independentcinemaoffice.org.uk/films/so-long-my-son-di-jiu-tian-chang/)
10. [Peter Bradshaw, "So Long, My Son review – exquisite, agonising Chinese family saga," The Guardian](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2019/dec/04/so-long-my-son-review-china-film-drama-wang-xiaoshai)
11. [Jonathan Romney, "'So Long, My Son': Berlin Review," Screen Daily](https://www.screendaily.com/reviews/so-long-my-son-berlin-review/5137002.article)
12. [Helen Chen, "王小帅谈《地久天长》：与计划生育时代的漫长告别," SBS Chinese](https://www.sbs.com.au/language/chinese/zh-hans/podcast-episode/zhuan-fang-wang-xiao-shuai-tan-de-jiu-tian-zhang-yu-ji-hua-sheng-yu-shi-dai-de-man-zhang-gao-bie/fik5v8iva)
13. ["导演王小帅谈电影创作," 国际在线](https://news.cri.cn/20190421/af2f9e6a-fee0-fceb-6930-acfc7a86df41.html)
14. [界面新闻: 王小帅《地久天长》包揽柏林电影节最佳男女主角奖](https://www.jiemian.com/article/2870223.html)
15. [Ren Scateni, "A Real Chinese Story: Wang Xiaoshuai Discusses 'So Long, My Son'," MUBI Notebook](https://mubi.com/en/notebook/posts/a-real-chinese-story-wang-xiaoshuai-discusses-so-long-my-son)
16. ["Wang Xiaoshuai a appris à jongler avec la censure," Le Monde](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2019/07/03/wang-xiaoshuai-a-appris-a-jongler-avec-la-censure_5484751_3246.html)
17. ["So Long, My Son press conference," The Upcoming](https://www.theupcoming.co.uk/2019/02/14/so-long-my-son-di-jiu-tian-chang-press-conference-with-wang-xiaoshuai-du-jiang-ai-liya-yong-mei-wang-jingchun-qi-xi-zhao-yanguozhang-and-liu-xuan/)
18. ["《地久天长》公映 导演王小帅：这就是生活," 人民网](https://culture.people.com.cn/n1/2019/0322/c1013-30990995.html)
19. ["So Long, My Son (Di jiu tian chang)," Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/so_long_my_son)
20. [辽宁晚报: 柏林"双熊"片《地久天长》上映四天票房仅3000万](https://epaper.lnd.com.cn/lswbepaper/pc/att/201903/27/b83f3dd0-a3c0-47da-a93f-1f50526e81c4.pdf)
21. [Thomas Chen, "The Two Versions of So Long, My Son," MCLC Resource Center](https://u.osu.edu/mclc/online-series/so-long-my-son/)
---
*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Drama and biographical films (individual works) › Drama films 2015 to 2019 › Drama films 2019*
*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 3, 2026; Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*
*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*
License: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license