Suburban Birds

Released Apr 5, 2019

1h 58m

Drama

List

84%

Tomatometer

19 Reviews

Hao is part of a team of young engineers called in to investigate a series of craters that have opened up on the edge of the city. As he and his team survey the subsiding area, another story is taking place in the same suburban landscape. A younger boy, also named Hao, spends long afternoons playing with friends and making mischief until one by one, his playmates start to disappear. As these parallel stories unfold, the connections between them proliferate and grow stranger.

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Ben Sachs

Chicago Reader

[Writer-director Qiu Sheng] elicits pleasingly sincere performances from both children and adults.

Mar 11, 2020

Full Review

Chloe Lizotte

Film Comment Magazine

Qiu's directorial touch is remarkably gentle-while rhyming images and stories across plotlines, he avoids schematic logic in favor of a light mystery of unity, seeking a quiet depth beyond sensory perception.

Jun 17, 2019

Full Review

Glenn Kenny

New York Times

Qiu shows remarkable facility as he patiently adds layer upon layer to a mystery that wants to stay one.

Apr 4, 2019

Full Review

Grant Watson

Fiction Machine

As a debut work, it is sensational, and suggests Qiu Sheng is yet another new generation Chinese director on whom to keep an expectant eye.

Rated: 8/10

Feb 20, 2023

Full Review

Andrew Heskins

easternKicks.com

Qiu Sheng's debut is at times non-linear and experimental, at others a heart-warming coming-of-age drama...

Rated: 3.5/5

Sep 23, 2020

Full Review

Phoebe Chen

Cinema Scope

There's no reliance on the easy nostalgia of period markers or a childhood boxed away as idyll; both storylines seem thoroughly contemporary.

Nov 22, 2019

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Sheng Qiu

Director

Zihan Gong

Xiahao

Lu Huang

Swallow

Mason Lee

Xiahao

Qian Xuanyi

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Xu Shuo

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Synopsis

Hao is part of a team of young engineers called in to investigate a series of craters that have opened up on the edge of the city. As he and his team survey the subsiding area, another story is taking place in the same suburban landscape. A younger boy, also named Hao, spends long afternoons playing with friends and making mischief until one by one, his playmates start to disappear. As these parallel stories unfold, the connections between them proliferate and grow stranger.

Director: Sheng Qiu
Producer: Patrick Mao Huang, Chen Jingsu, Eric Zhaowei Zhang
Screenwriter: Sheng Qiu
Distributor: Cinema Guild
Production Co: Flash Forward Entertainment
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Chinese
Release Date (Theaters): Apr 5, 2019, Limited
Release Date (Streaming): Jan 28, 2020
Box Office (Gross USA): $10.1K
Runtime: 1h 58m

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