The Bride

A year after his wife’s murder, Qi works alone in a small teashop with a small trickle of customers and sleeps on a damaged mattress in the back. A picture of his deceased wife turns off a few customers, but he proudly props it up on the bar. With barely enough money to live on, he and his three closest friends dream of the pleasures afforded by a million yuan life insurance premium but an insurance plan for his wife had already been bought.

Their new plan? Seduce a young, healthy wife, buy her life insurance, kill her, and split the premium between the four of them.

They elect the balding, overweight Qi as their most eligible bachelor and provide him a paltry pool of money to lure a girl with all the debonair skills he can muster.

When the adorable village-girl Chuntai presents herself as the teahouse waitress, the four men can hardly believe their luck. But as they live and work together, Qi finds himself falling for the innocent girl. While his heart yearns to protect her, his money-pressed friends urge him towards murder, and Qi is forced to choose between the two.

This hilarious film of karaoke bars, failed relationships and generation gap paints a surprisingly endearing picture of four boys who grew up too fast, and concludes with a deeply touching climax.

Directed by Zhang Ming, The Bride also offers a brief glimpse into Chinese urbanization side-by-side with its more rural cultures.