In The First Taste of Loneliness, one of the highest-profile Chinese art-house film debuts of 2026, three generations of women – played by Zhou Xun, Xi Meijuan and Wang Shengdi – struggle to put their lives back on track after the death of their family’s patriarch.

This beautifully crafted family drama from Chinese writer-director Gu You (previously known as Gu Xiaogang) premiered in competition at the Busan International Film Festival in South Korea earlier this month.
Zhou stars as Jiang Yue, a successful fashion director who pauses her career following her father’s death to settle his affairs and provide emotional support for both her grieving mother, Luna (Xi), and her teenage daughter, Moon (Wang).

After years apart, the tragedy reunites them under one roof. Rather than causing a permanent rift between them, the overwhelming sense of loneliness and uncertainty brings them closer together.

“At this stage in my life, I have witnessed the full spectrum of human experience,” Zhou tells the South China Morning Post, just days before winning the Busan festival’s gender-neutral prize for best actor.

Read my full South China Morning Post interview here