Looking for Lucky

Set in sunny, leafy northeastern Shenyang (Jiang’s hometown), grad student Guangsheng (Ding Xinhe) loses his professor’s white bulldog, Lucky, and as he believes caring for the animal is his ticket to the professor’s favor — and eventually a secure teaching post that will also look good to potential spouses — he enlists his cranky, blue-collar father (Yu Hai) to help him find it. The cops brush him off, and Guangsheng’s print shop-owning buddy points out he absolutely must offer a reward to anyone who might find the pooch. As the days go by and there’s no sign of Lucky, Guangsheng’s stress levels go through the roof and Lucky becomes a symbol of all that’s wrong with life in modern China.