Film brings light to dark human topics

Every Dog Has Its Day, the film that concluded the domestic exhibition section of the 2025 China Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Film Festival, recently made its debut in Xiamen, Fujian province.

Directed by Yue Yang and starring actors Lin Gengxin and Li Youbin, and actress Song Qian, this light comedy tells the story of Lao Lin, played by Li, a retired steelworker who plans to end his life. He hires a "caregiver", portrayed by Lin, to help him achieve his goal. Instead, the two form an unlikely friendship, helping each other confront their fears of illness and death and rediscover a willingness to live.

Director Yue said the film did not approach life and death as a dilemma, but as an experience everyone may encounter. By presenting the movie, which she described as a "letter of introduction to life and death", filmed from a comedic perspective, she hopes to make the theme more relatable to audiences.

For Yue, who previously served primarily as a producer, the film's screening fulfilled the last wish of late scriptwriter Shao Yan, who passed away after battling melanoma for more than three years in 2021.

"This film has a lot to say, but if there's one message we hope people take away, it's this: if we're all a little kinder to one another, things can get better," she said.

Liu Qian, the film's co-writer alongside Shao, said the movie's core idea is that kindness and the support of friends and family can help people overcome anything. The belief that there is hope, Liu noted, is what makes anxiety manageable.

The film will be released across domestic theaters later this year.