To the Wonder, an original production by iQIYI, China's leading online content provider, held its Asia premiere at the China Film Archive in Beijing on April 25.
Directed by Teng Congcong and starring actress Ma Yili, Zhou Yiran and Yu Shi, the 8-episode mini-series is an adaptation of award-winning essay collection My Altay by Li Juan, a recollection of her own experiences in the Altay region of Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region. To the Wonder offers a fresh narrative and sensory experience, blending light comedy with Li's literary aesthetics to explore themes of nature reverence, self-discovery and the simple yet resilient spirit of the northern Xinjiang herders.
As the series opens with quote "To love, to live and to get hurt", To the Wonder is about life and all of its facets. Zhang Fengxia, played by Ma, is a shopkeeper in a remote area of Altay. After the death of her husband, Zhang leaves the township and moves further into the isolated areas. Li Wenxiu (played by Zhou), Zhang's daughter, is an aspiring writer who returns home after her yearlong attempt at literature in the city bears no significant fruit. The re-encounter of the mother and daughter and a series of events faced by them epitomize the resilience and wisdom of Chinese women, and also put the relationship between a mother and a daughter under the spotlight. Batai, played by Yu, projects the vitality of a Kazakh youth as he goes through the fusions and collisions brought forward when different cultures meet.
