The Tired Bird Returns

Gu Mingyuan, 45, is one of China's most renowned documentary directors, hailed as 'the last conscience of this era.' He once made the epic work 'The Great River' with a Douban score of 9.8, and is revered as a cultural icon. Yet beneath the halo, his life is a mess. His creativity is in a bottleneck, and new projects are hijacked by investors. His wife, Shen Wanqing, a famous pianist, has been with him for twenty years in a marriage of convenience, devoid of sex and love. His daughter studies abroad and is estranged from him. At a cultural forum, he meets a young female writer, Su Mian, who admires, understands, and seduces him. Gu Mingyuan knows it's a dangerous game, but he falls for it like a moth to flame. Meanwhile, his friend and investor Zhao Pengcheng is plotting a hunt against him—he wants not only Gu's talent but also his reputation, resources, and lifeline. That year, Gu Mingyuan's life, like a mirror, begins to crack from the edges and eventually shatters completely. He loses family, career, friends, and dignity, ending up alone, returning to the small village by the Yellow River where he was born. There, he meets a mad old boatman who asks him: 'You've filmed so many stories of others, but dare you film your own?' — Description from novelcodex.org