Shower

"Shower" (洗澡, 1999) is a Chinese comedy-drama you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Zhang Yang. A businessman from the booming south races to Beijing after a telegram suggests his father has died — only to find the old man behind the counter of his neighbourhood bathhouse, same as always.

Old Liu (Zhu Xu) has kept the place running for years. His younger son Er-Ming, gentle and uncomplicated, is there every morning. Elder son Da-Ming arrived planning to leave fast, but the regulars' small dramas and his own long-avoided guilt slow him down more than he expected.

Zhang Yang made something warm and unhurried — a portrait of a communal way of life quietly disappearing as China modernised in the late 1990s. No speeches, no melodrama; just hot water, the hiss of steam, and a father who solved everyone's problems except the ones he couldn't name. Stream "Shower" online on iFILM.