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The Story Of The Closestool

Right after Mao, in Communist China early 1980s, director Buming XU recalls the situation in most households where a standard toilet was a luxury and people used "potties". A young Chinese girl Dan, lives in a stifling environment with her family in a house without toilet and has to empty her obnoxious younger brother's waste after he spends most of the day sitting on the loo.

When she finally has a flush toilet closestool installed next to her bedroom, she suddenly finds strange intrusions occurring and the general public even bashes an opening into the wall for entry to use the prized instrument.

With this depiction of the communautary approach to ll things, even basics and using the closestool as a symbol, Buming Xu paints an accurate picture of society in Communist China where there is no room for individual freedom.