YOUTH (HARD TIMES) is the second installment in Chinese director Wang Bing's monumental series chronicling the lives of migrant garment workers, some as young as 15, in the Zhili district of Huzhou City. Wang immerses himself in the lives of these workers, as they try to find potential dates, negotiate better piece-work rates with bosses, and sew, sew, sew, everything from padded jackets, to jeans, to pillows. Intimate and evocative, YOUTH (HARD TIMES) is a striking portrait of young lives in an alien environment that's radically different from the rural homes so many of them come from.
