Dong (′Winter′) and Chun (′Spring′) are a couple on the verge of splitting up. Their life together has settled into a routine of passionless moments. Both are nominally teachers in the art college from which they graduated, but the college has no work for them; it provides only tiny salaries and the dingy, cold-water apartment in which they live and paint. Dong lives on hopes of selling his paintings to a dealer in Hong Kong but for Chun, the only way up is out: she plans to emigrate to the USA ...Wang Xiaoshuai and other students who graduated from Beijing Film Academy in 1989 were very different from their ′fifth generation′ predecessors. They had no desire to produce over- arching commentaries on the state of the Chinese nation or its culture, but were content to deal with aspects of everyday life -- and everyday madness - which they knew at first hand. Since China′s newly privatised film studios wouldn′t give them jobs, they took matters into their own hands and began making ′underground′ films. The Days was made for around 10,000 US dollars with a small group of friends. Its lead actors are real-life stars of the Beijing art world. (Tony Rayns)