"That Thing My Dad Didn't Say" starring Han Geng, Zhang Guoli, and Xue Haojing has been announced to be released on November 3. The film is directed by Yojiro Takita, who won the Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film for "The Embalmer" and is known as Japan's best at grasping delicate emotions. The behind-the-scenes team is created by the original cast of "The Embalmer".
"The Thing My Dad Didn't Say" poster
"The Thing My Dad Didn't Tell" also focuses on the human touch in traditional skills. The film tells the story of Liu Jiansan, the eighth generation descendant of Liu style ice crystal cake, who learned the cake-making craft from his father since he was a child, but his father always had reservations about him. The disheartened Liu Jiansan left in disappointment, started a new life, and started his own family. It was not until his father passed away and when he was sorting out his belongings that the secret was finally revealed, but the regret and gratitude hidden in his heart were never told.
Stills from "The Thing My Dad Didn't Say"
In the finalized poster, Liu Jiansan (played by Han Geng) and Liu Tingshen (played by Zhang Guoli) are shown in the film. They stand in front of an old wooden door with their own thoughts. This is also the first time that Han Geng and Zhang Guoli have played father and son together. How the two of them can open up their hearts and eliminate misunderstandings is not only a proposition they face in the film, but also a question that the audience outside the screen needs to think about.
Stills from "The Thing My Dad Didn't Say"
The film uses the traditional pastry "ice crystal cake" as a clue to tell the story of the craftsman's ingenuity and the cultural heritage contained in it, and also hides the flow of family love in it. The secret recipe that has been passed down for hundreds of years is not only connected with the production process of "ice crystal cake", but also the secrets of family love and unspeakable pain that have been passed down by this family for hundreds of years. In order to better interpret the heritage of craftsmanship and restore the century-old family style and the bonds of oriental families, the crew searched for real-life scenes across the country and finally decided to shoot in Yunnan.
Stills from "The Thing My Dad Didn't Say"
"That Thing My Dad Didn't Tell" was originally titled "Smell the Smoke" and was scheduled to be released in 2019, but was later withdrawn. The withdrawal script given by the film crew at that time was "If you have a good meal, don't be afraid of being late, and work hard and work well." Yojiro Takita once expressed in an interview that he hopes "Smell of Smoke" can become a heart-tugging movie, both for Chinese and Japanese audiences.
