Rhode Island International Film Festival 2009

In Jilin, a large industrial city in northern China, Song Xue-Wen, a young industrial worker, becomes the inadvertent victim of a radioactive accident at his company. He undergoes seven major operations in which both legs are amputated at the hip, and his left hand is amputated at the wrist. He also loses functionality of all five fingers of his right hand. A subsequent addiction to pain-killing morphine forces him to undergo drug rehabilitation three times. The local company Song worked for refuses to give him proper compensation for his crippling losses or to even pay for prosthetic limbs with which he might some day achieve his dream of standing up. Experiencing the lowest point of his life, he meets a beautiful, caring young school teacher, named Yang Gang. Through their growing and emotionally supportive friendship, and with very meager financial support from his impoverished parents, he resolves to bring his case for just compensation to officials at his former company's headquarters in Beijing. Trying to find their way amid the expansive growth and frenetic pace of a Beijing looking for its new identity as a modern oversized metropolis of skyscraping office towers, multi-lane highways and long, winding, handicap-inaccessible pedestrian overpasses of metal and concrete, Song and Yang Gang tenaciously try to find out how to bring their case before the company's officials. As they search, the couple encounters various corrupt and needy individuals along the way who try to trick them out of whatever small amount of money they have to survive in Beijing during their quest for justice.After confronting local officials from the company, who try to prevent the couple from presenting their case to higher authorities, the two flee their temporary living quarters, try to earn a living on the streets, and improvise a rest place in half-demolished building remnants of the old BeijingIn the face of company resistance, Song and Yang seek out the services of a lawyer, who demands an initial retainer that is far beyond their means. Life in the big city is hard for the young couple, but through it they find love and happiness, and what it means to stand up. Song Xue-Wen plays himself in this film, which is based on the true story of his life.