Back to the Wharf 2020

In the opening 1992 sequences, Song Hao, Zhang Yu, a teenager, finds himself drawn into a grim act when he and his father commit a homicide. The event forces him to abandon his hometown and seek work in Guangzhou, a choice that sets the stage for years of consequences he can’t escape.

The bulk of the film unfolds in 2007, when Song Hao returns to his childhood town after his mother’s death and begins confronting the past he left behind. Here, he reconnects with Li Tang, now a politically powerful figure who wields influence over the town’s fortunes. Lee Hong Chi portrays Li Tang, a man who secured a direct admission to university through political maneuvering tied to his father, the mayor. That coveted spot, originally meant for Song Hao, underscores the deep entanglements of power and opportunity that color the town’s landscape. Li Tang’s rise casts a long shadow over former rivals and old classmates alike, as he uses his position to press for control over the vulnerable, including Wan Xiaoning.

Wan Xiaoning, the daughter of Song Hao’s victim, is played by Deng Enxi. She faces pressure from Li Tang to leave her nail house—a stubborn emblem of the struggles over land and status in a changing town. The conflict over her home becomes a flashpoint in the broader battle of who gets to stay, who must move, and who is forgotten as power shifts hands.

Amid these tensions, Pan Xiaoshuang, Song Jia, a childhood schoolmate, re-enters Song Hao’s life with a growing romantic interest, and the two eventually marry. The union complicates loyalties and personal histories, weaving romance into a narrative already thick with debt to the past and the pull of present ambitions.

As old secrets resurface, Li Tang reminds Song Hao that he is not free of the past. In a brutal turn, Wan Xiaoning is murdered by being struck with a car, and Li Tang orders Song Hao to bury her body, a coercive act that tightens the knot between them and pulls Song Hao deeper into crime. The pressure of this admission and the crime itself fracture the fragile balance each man maintains, echoing through the town’s corridors of power.

Song Hao’s father, Song Jianhui [Wang Yanhui], speaks to his son, urging endurance in the face of mounting consequences. Yet the burden proves too heavy, and Song Hao breaks down, his pain condensing into a fatal injury that he inflicts on himself, a desperate end to a chapter that has dragged so many others into its wake.

As the film edges toward its conclusion, the various crimes and cover-ups begin to unravel, exposing the culpability of multiple parties and reshaping the town’s moral and political landscape. The narrative threads—carefully laid in the past and pulled tight in the present—reveal a web of action and consequence that lingers long after the final scenes.