Journey to the West

Journey to the West (宇宙探索编辑部, 2023) is a Chinese sci-fi mockumentary you can watch online on iFILM, directed by Kong Dashan. Tang Zhijun is the middle-aged editor of a near-dead UFO magazine, still convinced — against all available evidence — that alien contact with Earth is coming.

When a peculiar young man from the countryside claims to receive transmissions from outer space, Tang rounds up a small team and follows him in. The shaky handheld footage and dead-air pauses are deliberate; beneath the deadpan comedy sits something genuinely tender: a film about people who keep looking for meaning where no one else bothers. It picked up the Special Jury Award at SXSW 2023.

Stream Journey to the West online on iFILM.