On the Beat (1995 film)

On the Beat
Movie Poster (1995)
Traditional Chinese民警故事
Simplified Chinese民警故事
Hanyu PinyinMín jǐng gù shì
Directed byNing Ying
Written byNing Ying
Produced byHan Sanping
Francesco Cosentino
StarringLi Zhanho
Li Jian
CinematographyZhi Lei
Wu Hongwei
Edited byNing Ying
Music bySu Cong
Release date
  • September 8, 1995 (1995-09-08)
Running time
105 minutes
CountryChina
LanguageMandarin

On the Beat (Chinese: 民警故事; pinyin: Mín jǐng gù shì; lit. 'People's Police Story') is a 1995 Chinese film directed by Ning Ying. It is the second film in Ning Ying's Beijing Trilogy, a collection of three films that follows the massive changes to Beijing in the last decades of the twentieth century. Whereas Ning's previous film, For Fun dealt with the older generation, On the Beat is firmly focused on the story of the middle-aged. I Love Beijing, meanwhile, would follow characters belonging Beijing's younger generations. On the Beat was coproduced by Eurasia Communications, Euskal Media and the state-operated Beijing Film Studio. Some funding was also from the International Film Festival Rotterdam's Hubert Bals Fund.[1]

On the Beat follows a group of police officers in the Deshengmen Precinct during the slow months of winter. The policemen, stuck in the dull winter months of Beijing, get stuck in a routine, only occasionally finding excitement, as when they chase after a rabid dog.

Released in 1995, On the Beat made the rounds of most of the major international film festivals, including Toronto, Telluride and San Sebastián, among others.[1]

  1. ^ a b Cite error: The named reference Variety was invoked but never defined (see the help page).