我们俩 You and me

One snowy day, a girl looking for a place to stay jumps into the private residence of an old woman. First they both dislike one another, though as they spend more time together their friendship grow. However, one day the girl must leave the house of the old woman.

Ma Liwen's second movie was largely based on her own experiences. Born in the eastern province of Jiangxi, Ma came to Beijing's Central Academy of Drama in the 1990s, and accordingly rented a small room in a courtyard building. The owner of this complex was an elderly lady, who lived a solitary but tranquil life. At the beginning these two found themselves at constant loggerheads, before gradually becoming interested in each other's lives and finally developing an emotional bond. Indeed, when the old lady died, Ma was overwhelmed with memories and guilty feelings, which she attempted to honor and exorcise through this movie You and Me.
Remaining true to the reality of this background, You and Me is a very simple movie, with one scene-the courtyard, two people-the female student and old lady, and four seasons. There are no lurches or twists in the plot, but rather an exquisite attention to detail, which focuses upon the inner worlds of both young and old. Ma describes this movie as technically quite easy to shoot, with no night scenes, and a willingness to film around the entire year, in order to enjoy the natural changes of seasons.
"I used probably the most thickheaded method to shoot the four seasons. Meanwhile, the story may be one of my own but it also has a universal theme. I aimed at showing the grandeur that arises from the trivial, instead of showing the trivial that arises from grandeur. This thing was the result of my own experiences, yet it's still not so easy to emphasize the emotional changes between two people."