OLD STONE

When a drunken passenger causes his taxi to seriously injure a motorcyclist, taxi driver Lao Shi rushes the cyclist to the hospital and saves his life. Although the cyclist survives after emergency surgery, he is now in a coma. Suddenly Lao is under investigation for both hurting and helping him (in violation of insurance and company policy) and is now responsible for the immense and ongoing medical bills. Lao is a good man, one with principles, who finds that nobody is able or willing to help. A cold, inept bureaucracy begins grinding him down. Even after locating the passenger responsible for the accident, who refuses to testify or aid him, Lao insists on doing the right thing—paying the bills, even at the risk of his own family’s welfare. But there is a line between principle and survival and soon Lao is pushed over it. Superbly paced and acted, OLD STONE is a tense and unsettling look at what emerges when a good man is fed into the mill of an uncaring and unjust system. (In Mandarin with subtitles) —C.R.