Portrait of the ‘discreet charm of the bourgeoisie’ in Communist China. Without a line and without a plot, the film gives us a glimpse of the lives of several people who happen to live in the same block. A quarrel between neighbours is settled by the police, a young girl leaves a suicide note…A writer and his wife move into a flat in search of peace and privacy. They are however immediately drawn into the conflict in the block between a communist official and a rebellious ‘common man’. Tensions rise when the common man starts a busi¡ness in his flat involving fish. Soon afterwards, long strange shapes start appearing on the damp walls.Tony Rayns called Stand Up, Don’t Grovel ‘the only new Chinese film that tackles the hot issues of 1993: the fading of the virtue and authority of the Communist Party, the weak attitude of the “intellectual” class and the striking growth of young, hard-working and get-rich-quick entrepreneurs who feel relea¡sed from responsibilities towards the State. The result is not just sharp satire, but also very funny comedy.’
