“Winner”: New Chopstick Brothers Chinese Short Film

This following short film, “Winner” aka “The Winner” or “The Ultimate Winner” (not to be confused with a different movie), has been viewed over 5.5 million times since it was uploaded 3 days ago on popular Chinese video sharing website Youku . There are currently over 188k upvotes and nearly 10,000 comments spanning over 300 pages. This 30 minute movie was made by the same “Chopstick Brothers” who made the extremely popular “Old Boy” short film that we reported about last year.

There are English subtitles, although the translations are sometimes not very good.

Comments from Youku: (translated by Youku Buzz)

80后奋男:

“What does ‘rich person’ mean? It means you’re only a person if you’re rich.” I don’t agree with that, but it does make me feel conflicted…a man who can never go home.

kingwould:

This movie is really worth praising — much deeper than [the Chopstick Brothers’ previous film] “Old Boys”. This is more than just nostalgia; it’s the thoughts and feelings of a middle-aged man looking back at his life. After I watched this I found that I had a lump in my throat and my eyes were wet, and I thought of my mother, and of how happy I was with my wife once. What did I have to go looking for a mistress for? I just realized that when I was young, happiness was so easy to obtain.

wofsdmfnj:

When you know how to treasure the little, ordinary things, then you&’re the real winner. Life doesn’t have to be all about high points and victories. A quiet, normal life is its own kind of happiness.

wc1982kaonizui:

I really liked this. It moved me at least once today. China should have more short movies like this — down with crap-ass “blockbusters” that screw everyone over!!

skycraper2009:

So what? The reality of our society is what it is, and people have to be realistic. Are people really going to drop out of reality and drop out of society? Are they really going to do whatever they want without worrying about losing their jobs? If people can just learn to keep on a more even keel, then the movie has done its job, I think.

妮妮飒豆豆:

“Being realistic?” Is betraying your wife being realistic? Is it being realistic to not visit your own mother on her deathbed? Does being realistic mean killing the man who saved your life? People are free to make their own choices. There are plenty of people in the world who manage to make a living without betraying the things they stand for. Why did the main character here have to choose money? What did it get him in the end, but a heap of cold coin? People try to make money so that they can have better lives, but for him, money ruined everything.

What do you think? Compared to “Old Boy”?