Por un puñado de Yuanes

María Cañas


This experimental micro-documentary explores surprising differences and similarities, resulting from a match-mismatch between Western and Asian. The melting pot for the Chinese and European world.

Por un puñado de yuanes (For a handful of yuans), is a journey to the heart of Shanghai to discover the mysteries of illegal peddling of Chinese erotic film, a critique about sexual repression of the population and child prostitution. It's about hypocrisy, western tourist consumerist obsession and its passion for the "give me two."

It is a confrontation between two radically different ways of understanding life and eroticism through a surreal give and take of money. A delirious and surreal journey of a western grilled (yes, folks, yours truly!) Breaking through the wall of Chinese faces to find the Holy Grail of Chinese erotica, dvd's in-between...

Technical datasheet

  • Title: Por un puñado de Yuanes
  • Direction: María Cañas
  • Production: Animalario TV Producciones con el apoyo del Festival Internacional Punto de Vista de Pamplona. Pieza del proyecto La Mano que Mira, Heterodoxias.. 2008.
  • Duration: 00:04:57
  • Languages: Spanish - Traditional Chinese
  • Subtitles: English
  • Original format: Mini DV
  • Formats: Betacam Digital - DVD
  • TV systems: NTSC - PAL
  • License: Creative Commons