Violence, drugs, sex, moral disenchantment, and social misery – the independent film Life in Wandering is a typical contribution to exploitation cinema, or, more precisely, to the exploitative filmmaking tendencies of a country undergoing precipitous social, political, and economic changes. Similar to the Russian film Brother (Brat, 1997) by Alexey Balabanov, this Chinese debut pointedly reflects the contemporary situation of its country. It features the story of a naïve young man who arrives in the big city and is there forced by circumstances into engaging in illegal activities. Thanks to the use of a small digital camera, the filmmakers were able to set individual sequences in real environments without in any way limiting the chosen locations’ natural hustle and bustle. The sense of realism is further heightened by tremendous long shots. The film affords a sharply raw look at the flip side of China during the period of the Olympic Games.