Wei Shujun

Wei Shujun is a Chinese film director, screenwriter and actor based in Beijing. He is best known for his feature films Only the River Flows and Striding Into the Wind (2020). His short film On the Border (2018) won the Mention Spéciale at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. Other films by him include Ripples of Life (2021), Mostly Sunny (2024), I Dreamed a Dream (2025) and the upcoming Mr. Crane Is Back!.

Early life and education Wei started his career in film at the age of fourteen as a child actor. Wei is a fan of hip-hop and considered a career as a professional musician when he was in his twenties. At university, he watched a lot of movies and became increasingly interested in making films.

Career Wei directed his first film Duck Neck (浮世千) in 2016. Two years later, Wei followed it up with a short film, 2018's On the Border (延边少年), which was awarded the Special Mention at the 2018 Cannes Film Festival. It was eventually screened at the BFI London Film Festival in October 2020. The plot follows two skeptical sound recording students on a roadtrip to Inner Mongolia, where they intend to film a movie. In a 2022 interview, Wei revealed that the main characters were largely based on his own experience at film school that he and co-writer Gao Linyang went to together. The movie captures the process of filmmaking in the Chinese indie industry, following different members of a film crew preparing for production. The movie is split into three "novels", each taking on a different set of perspectives. The movie's screenwriter, Kang Chunlei, said of the theme of the movie, "We hope to explore the stagnation of life and its impact on each individual". Kang and producer Huang Xuefeng played the part of the screenwriter and producer respectively. An adaptation of Yu Hua's barely known 1987 novella Mistakes By The River (河边的错误), it marked the second collaboration with Kang as co-screenwriter. The story follows Detective Ma Zhe (Zhu Yilong) investigating a series of murders in a fictional riverside town in mid-1990s China. Only the River Flows is Wei's first feature film not to center on young filmmakers, but instead draws parallels between the professions of filmmaking and law enforcement. The film follows a group of young men with ambitions to become famous rappers as they take part in a mysterious film shoot led by an absent genius director.

Wei's upcoming film, Mr. Crane Is Back! (白鹤亮翅), has been in production since at least 2022.

Critical reception A "rave review" In an interview with French film website Cinematraque, Wei was compared to other young Chinese film directors such as Gu Xiaogang and Bi Gan. When asked about that connection, he said that he hopes their generation can leave a mark on cinema.

Filmography

Feature films

Awards and nominations