In the last days of the Qing dynasty, revolutionaries seek help from a Sichuan sworn brotherhood. Meanwhile, a poor kitchen boy slips away for his birthday meal, unaware that his fate is about to change.
For Qiu, great history is also made of lives that seldom enter its records — including a boy whose birthday wish is simply to eat his fill.
One small
wish.
Zhang Sanxing hopes for a proper birthday meal. Beyond the kitchen, others are making plans that will change the world he knows.
AROUND THE TABLE ↘A kitchen boy, revolutionaries and the sworn brothers whose help they seek.
A Cantonese-style fish congee meets the flavours of Sichuan: fragrant patchouli, with a little chilli oil. A birthday meal born of the encounter between revolutionaries from Guangdong and the local sworn brotherhood.
Perhaps this is what the Great Harmony tastes like.
Pan-fry the fish head and tail until fragrant, then simmer with rice congee in a clay pot. Add the fish belly and roe. Remove from the heat and slip in thin slices of fresh fish; leave the pot uncovered. Finish with fresh Sichuan patchouli, and serve with Sichuan chilli oil if desired.
Adapted from the FUXI feast foldout, p. 8. The film's preparation, not a historical recipe.FOOD NOTES & RECIPE · ADAPTED FROM THE SUPPLIED FUXI FEAST FOLDOUT.
A boy, the sworn brotherhood, the flavours of Sichuan and the histories moving beyond the table.
A fictional kitchen boy with a modest birthday wish: to eat a proper meal. He knows little of the upheaval gathering around him, and even less of the part ordinary lives may be made to play in history.
Qiu places this almost invisible life at the centre of the final tale.
SOURCE: DIRECTOR INTERVIEW · 2026 PRESS KIT.A distinctive network of sworn brothers in Sichuan, with its own customs, loyalties and local influence. The director speaks of its contribution to revolutionary movements, even when its members were not remembered in official histories.
SOURCE: DIRECTOR INTERVIEW · 2026 PRESS KIT.The movement began in Sichuan in the final years of Qing rule. The director identifies it as an important immediate context for the 1911 Revolution and the world of the fourth tale.
SOURCE: DIRECTOR INTERVIEW · 2026 PRESS KIT.The revolutionary overthrow of Qing rule forms the wider horizon of the final story. The film looks at that upheaval from the kitchen, where a boy’s ordinary wish collides with plans much larger than himself.
SOURCES: SYNOPSIS AND DIRECTOR INTERVIEW · 2026 PRESS KIT.Cantonese fish congee takes on Sichuan flavours through fresh patchouli and chilli oil. The combination is one example Qiu gives of how an outside tradition becomes part of local everyday cooking.
SOURCE: DIRECTOR INTERVIEW · 2026 PRESS KIT.The director wanted the last tale to enter a more recognisably modern Sichuan, shaped by migration and the region’s changing relationship with the wider world.
SOURCE: DIRECTOR INTERVIEW · 2026 PRESS KIT.Great events are remembered through prominent names. Zhang Sanxing and others like him rarely appear in the record, though their work and sacrifice form the ground on which history unfolds.
SOURCE: DIRECTOR INTERVIEW · 2026 PRESS KIT.The world of the fourth story in the director's visual language.
Original drawings by Qiu Jiongjiong for the fourth tale, alongside a drawing-to-screen comparison from the international press kit.
Qiu Jiongjiong · Mixed media on paper · 27 × 39 cm
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