In 1978, Chen Wa'er, Wu Xikai and their other childhood friends all entered the gaokao exam rooms. Chen Wa'er and Hu Meihua failed to make the cut while Li Qiang is admitted to an accounting school. As their paths diverge, life widens the gap between the friends. Li Qiang finds a pot of gold as he enters the financial markets and eventually marries Chen Wa'er. His ego gets the best of him and he abandons his wife and son. Wa'er is unfazed by the repeated blows in her life and becomes the founder of a well-known enterprise. Hu Meihua who left for the United States returns as a banker. Looking back, everyone first assembled at the same starting line but when shots were fired, each began to run the marathon towards their respective goals.

A satirical drama based on a novel set in China, where two characters navigate their lives both backwards and forwards.

Journalist Gou Yujia (played by Niu Zhenhua), laid-off female worker Cheng Fen (played by Ding Jiali), individual business owner Lv Dou (played by Wang Jinsong), and wealthy man Lao Cha (played by Ju Hao) are members of Class 1025 at the driving school, practicing under the guidance of Coach Hou, a retired soldier. As time passes, they gradually understand each other's habits. This period of time at the driving school is filled with twists and turns, but all challenges are overcome, and the covert and overt struggles among the five end with the smooth passage of the exams. The experiences at the driving school bring out the joys and sorrows of these five individuals, and besides learning the rules of driving, it seems they have also learned the rules of survival.

On an old barge moored close to a small village inhabited by old people and children, live young Wang Wang and his grandfather. The latter is immensely fond of the local doctor, Ms. Bei, who keeps prompting him to buy her a ring as proof of his good intentions. Wang Wang attends the local school, but, in the absence of maternal authority, with great reluctance. Then, one night, a young pregnant woman is discovered hiding on the boat, ready to give birth. With the arrival of her little baby girl, the young mother, already used to her river accommodations, opts to stay with them. Life on the barge is no longer the same. Wang Wang feels the stirring of adolescence and an Oedipal attraction to the young woman; the grandfather is diagnosed with dementia and and is warned that its first signs could soon manifest themselves; and the new young mother keeps a bag whose contents will later reveal a dark secret. Three people at a crossroads in their lives.

Hailed by the Chinese government as one of the ten best films of the 1996-97 season, this irony-laced light drama is based on a novel by Fang Fang, and begins with the brutal slaying and robbery of a dock worker's family. The city assigns one of its best detectives, Yan Gao to find "the Wise One," the crime lord behind the murders. To do this, Yan sets up a series of surveillance sights around the city. When port guard Ye learns that he and his supervisor have been chosen to monitor one of the Wise One's main hideouts, he is delighted. It is the most exciting thing to have happened to him in years. But problems come because he must work nights and is sworn to secrecy. His girlfriend Bai Lin misinterprets his absences and this causes trouble. More trouble comes when her old lover shows up. Matters are made worse when a message for Ye and Tian to stop their surveillance does not get through.

In response to the death of her husband and young son, peasant Zhang Meili founds a school in the dry desert landscape of northwest China. When cultured and chipper Xia Yu arrives from Beijing to help her out, the two women bond and learn from each other's character how to best serve the children. Various subplots include the arrival of Xia's husband, who tries in vain to persuade her to return to the city, Xia's quick abortion, and the comically clandestine relationship between Zhang and a local projectionist.

A divorced woman takes twin daughters to Beijing for living opportunities. She meets a widowed labor contractor. The two both have same nickname 'Loach'. They help each other for their adrift lives.

A country girl marries a projectionist to satisfy her passion for the movies, but when her husband has an accident, she is forced to take over, and their life together is never the same.

Bright Sunshine (a.k.a. The Sun, 大太阳)