A man enters a traditional Chinese tavern as evening settles over an old town.

Before him are a porcelain cup and a jar of baijiu. He pours himself a drink.

But the first cup opens something larger than the evening before him.

Through memory, imagination and inherited cultural stories, another world begins to appear.

He sees the scholar-poet, quietly drinking from a small porcelain cup before returning to his brush and paper. He sees the warrior, laughing among companions and lifting a great bowl of wine without hesitation. He sees the disappointed artist and wandering dreamer, drinking, writing, painting and singing to ease the burdens of an uncertain life.

Grain becomes wine. Wine becomes celebration.

Wedding banquets glow in red. Friends raise their cups around crowded tables. Hands meet in a toast. Stories, affection and disagreements unfold over the same ancient ritual.

The boundaries between history, legend and imagination gradually disappear.

Inspired by Li Famo’s poem, The Wine is not a story about intoxication. It is a cinematic meditation on the place wine has occupied within Chinese cultural memory.

Within one cup exist the scholar and the warrior, celebration and loneliness, friendship and love, pride and vulnerability.

Eventually the noise fades.

The man is alone again beneath the moon.

He raises one final porcelain cup toward the night sky.

The people have disappeared, but the wine, the moon and the memories remain.

Directed by Hua Zeng (USA)