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​ALMOST THERE​​

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​Logline: 

 

A hard-working young girl in the Chinese National Badminton Team reveals her desire to win in the try-out of Sudirman Cup. But the cruel ecosystem in the sports world gives her a hard lesson, which makes her question her capability and her passion for badminton.

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Artist Statement:

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I don’t fit the usual image of a writer.​ I grew up in a sports family and spent ten years as a professional badminton player before college. The team was my second home. 

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Writing a story about badminton feels like assembling fragments of both joy and pain from my athletic life. Raised within the Chinese sports system, I was taught to see anything short of the top as failure. Traditional sports narratives often follow an underdog who grows, overcomes, and ultimately wins. But that is not a story I can fully believe in. What sports taught me most was not victory, but the cruelty of reality. More importantly, it taught me how to live with failure.

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ALMOST THERE is a story about an athlete who fails and learns to carry that failure. It is a painful story, but not a hopeless one. Xin’ya’s journey does not promise triumph. Instead, it suggests that even within a harsh and indifferent world, there is a way to keep going.

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The film also explores the randomness of life. Effort does not always lead to success, and outcomes are often beyond our control. Xin’ya is not a conventional hero, but she is not someone to be pitied either. Through her, I hope the audience can come to recognize and accept that uncertainty, rather than resist it.

 

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