Heart of Fang

Dust and smoke rise and fall across the loess plateau, while the worries of ordinary people remain hard to soothe. Zhou Yanqiu tends his family's old clinic, inherited through generations. After a lifetime of treating patients, he has seen the suffering of countless people and come to understand the obsessions and sorrows hidden in their hearts. His grandfather was a reclusive man who kept the secrets of half a lifetime buried deep; His father was silent and patient, clinging to a promise and grinding away in the shadow of old guilt; The elderly oilfield workers in town were all plagued by stubborn illnesses and pent-up emotions, each trapped for half a lifetime by a long-buried past. The secret of the drilling site in the winter of 1987 was like an invisible thread, ensnaring the fate of an entire generation and binding father and son in an impossible dilemma. A doctor can heal the body with medicine, but not the obsessions of the heart; People may see through life's joys and sorrows, yet still struggle to untie the knots in their own hearts. Living among ordinary people, Zhou Yanqiu observes humanity through his work as a doctor and tempers his character in the routines of daily life. He does not turn away from the world or flee the past. Amid the pull of human relationships and the rhythms of everyday life, he waits patiently, slowly untangling the knots in people's hearts that have gathered over the years. On one side is a steadfast commitment to a promise, held to at any cost; On the other is a doctor's duty and instinct to save lives. Father and son each carry their own burdens and endure their own torments. They see through one another but do not call it out; they understand, and simply wish to let the other have his way. In the end, Illness of the body can be cured, and pain of the heart can be eased; There are remedies for the troubles of life, and the heart can find peace again. He tempers his heart amid the everyday affairs of ordinary life, and finds a place for the rest of his years in the passage of time.