Looking Up (film)

At a press conference for the two astronauts about to go on the Shuguang No. 16 spacecraft – fourth-timer Gu Xinghe (Shao Bing) and first-timer Ma Fei (Bai Yu) – the latter's family is conspicuously not present.

September 1990: as a young boy (Feng Ze’ang) in the city of Dongpei, Ma Fei's father, engineer Ma Haowen (Deng Chao), had given him a globe made from a football. But during a splashy ceremony for the opening of a bridge that Ma Haowen had designed, the bridge had collapsed, tarring Ma Haowen's reputation for ever.

15 December 2019: After 57 days the two astronauts are due to return to Earth in three days’ time. Suddenly, however, all contact is lost with Jiuquan when some space debris damages the spacecraft's radio antenna.

February 1991: Ma Haowen has been convicted of negligence and sent to a remote prison, where his wife Xinyu (Ren Suxi) visits and gets him to sign divorce papers. During his prison sentence Ma Haowen is bullied by fellow convicts; at home, his son Ma Fei is also bullied.

In 1997 Ma Haowen returns home to Dongpei after seven years, still hated by people in the town. Xinyu now has a sugar daddy, railway administrator Meng (Liang Chao), and the two have sent Ma Fei (Sun Xilun) to Boyu High School, an exclusive local boarder that's among the four best in Dongpei. When Ma Fei is expelled for skipping class and reading a Jin Yong martial-arts novel, Ma Haowen publicly challenges the headmaster, Yan (Li Jianyi), over the decision. Yan finally agrees to let Ma Fei stay on for a while, as long as he makes the top 10 in class. When Meng has to go to Guangzhou on business, Ma Haowen spends time with his son but he's still mocked by locals in the street and still can't find a job. One man, Liu Baliang (Wu Yaheng), does give him a job after Ma Haowen helps him out; and Ma Haowen's onetime apprentice, Lu Datou (Wang Ge), surreptitiously gives him and his son a place to stay. In return, Ma Haowen does a lot of work under Lu Datou's name.

With his father's encouragement, Ma Fei starts to study hard, though Xinyu is appalled at what is going on. At the high school, Ma Haowen becomes friendly with Gao Tianxiang (Wang Xi), a young replacement teacher who believes in Ma Fei. Ma Haowen tries to get his son to learn in a lateral way, not just rote from school books, and to open his eyes to the world. He finally pulls him out of high school and educates him on the road, though Ma Fei is almost drowned in a heavy storm that separates the two of them.

16 December 2019: Ma Fei volunteers to go outside the spacecraft to inspect the damaged antenna, without which they cannot return to Earth. Gu Xinghe forbids him, but eventually Ma Fei is to make his own, unconventional decision, as his father has always taught him.

• Deng Chao as Ma Haowen
• Bai Yu as Ma Fei (Adult son)
• Ren Suxi as Xinyu
• Wang Xi as Teacher Xiao Gao
• Sun Xilun as Ma Fei (Youth son)
• Li Jianyi as Director Yan
• Chao Liang as Uncle Meng
• Bing Shao as Gu Xinghe
• Ge Wang as Lu Datou
• Yaheng Wu as Liu Baliang
• Zun Wei as Fengzi
• Zeang Feng as Ma Fei (Childhood son)
• Zhidi Bai Ma as Fei's high school teacher
• Lele Dai Gu as Xinghe's wife
• Jing Wu as Pan Wanli

The film was released on July 24, 2019, and featured at the 2019 Busan International Film Festival.

• Looking Up on IMDb
• Looking Up at Rotten Tomatoes