Cheng Die is a young music teacher living in a small town. Following an affair with a married man, she loses her job and has to leave town. She finds herself on an isolated island whose inhabitants cannot speak and where nothing is what it seems. She gets immersed in a dreamy experience.

A decade ago, a medical student and a steelworker become pen-friends when they chance upon the same copy of Leo Tolstoy's "Resurrection". Off the page, passion and hatred mingle and two murders are committed, and the two friends part ways. A young police officer starts to investigate, but in vain. A decade later, the young graduate student has become a renowned doctor, and has married his sweetheart. The steelworker returns to the city, bringing with him his handicapped girlfriend. Meanwhile, the police officer can't shake off the unsolved mystery of the murder cases. The last ten years have brought with them great change, each of the characters falling deeper into webs of vice and desire. They must choose the path to salvation, or the road to hell.

The killers Ge and Song execute daily killing missions for their "Father" organization, and at the same time, Ge is often awakened by fragments of memories in his head during sleep. During a chase, a déjà vu scene causes Ge Jun's brain to fluctuate, and he realizes that these memory fragments have a significant connection to his past. Ge begins to trace his identity, but Song is also involved accidentally. The two of them realize the true nature of the "Father" organization and discover the truth about the evil "memory transplant" being carried out by the organization.

An old coffin painter, whose son was murdered, waits for the killer to leave prison. A mother and her daughter move to his neighborhood, which changes him. Will he still want vengeance?

Having been released after serving his sentence, a funeral director accidentally crosses paths with a girl which brings about an unexpected change in his attitude towards life.

In sprawling Chongqing, the quiet life of a divorced taxi driver erupts after he gives a ride to a mysterious woman coming home after two decades. Reigniting his sexual desires, she also releases his suppressed angst about his paralyzed mother and rebellious gay son. Shrouded in dark tunnels and deep fog, he sees no light ahead. This mesmerizing drama, at once gloomily real and luminously surreal, evokes a time when dreams are lost, and no hope can be found.

The life of Tao, and those close to her, is explored in three different time periods: 1999, 2014, and 2025.

Four people in different provinces are driven to violent ends: An angry miner is enraged by corruption in his village. A migrant discovers the possibilities of owning a firearm. A receptionist is pushed beyond her limits by an abusive client. A young factory worker goes from one job to the next.

Jia Zhangke's short film for Greenpeace East Asia depicts the effects of air pollution in northeast China, a region frequently blanketed in dangerous levels of air pollution. 'Smog Journeys' traces two families from two different backgrounds; one a mining family in Hebei province, and the other a trendy middle class family in Beijing. Both face a similar fate. Air pollution is one of China's most pressing environmental and health issues. Greenpeace calls for a shift from coal to clean renewable energy, as well as short term measures that better safeguard people's health.