When a father and son’s film projection business goes up in flames, they’re forced to resort to DVD piracy in this warm-hearted, Beijing-set comedy. As movie lovers and budding entrepreneurs, Big Wong and Little Wong have it made: hustling through 1990s Beijing with their reel-to-reel projector, screening films cheaply to appreciative audiences. But following a fire that destroys his business, Big Wong’s child support payments dry up and his life with his boy is threatened. When he discovers abandoned DVD recorders in a cinema basement, he starts bootlegging movies to reignite their business. But isn’t illegal copying, albeit in a protective, state-run industry, a tricky ideology to justify? Australian writer-director Sam Voutas’ Mandarin-language comedy is a scrappy charmer (and a sneaky critique of burgeoning Chinese capitalism), featuring two lovely lead performances that, befitting a film about cinephiles, evoke beloved classics from Kramer vs. Kramer to Cinema Paradiso.

Leigh Singer