Family at Large

三滴血

China, 2025, colour, 2.35:1, 109 mins.

Director: Kang Bo 康博.

Rating: 5/10.

This child-trafficking drama set in wintry Northeast China has lots of dark atmosphere and colourful performances but a poorly structured, confused script.

STORY

Somewhere in Northeast China, Sep 2002. During the Mid-Autumn Festival, Zhu Shaoyu (Hu Ge), 35, is released after four years of imprisonment for illegal logging. While he was in prison his pregnant wife, Yang Jie (Gao Ye), had divorced him. Some time later Zhu Shaoyu discovers that his three-year-old son, Yang Zibo, is missing, snatched off the street by child traffickers. On 31 Jan 2003, Chinese New Year’s Eve, in the dead of winter, he looks up his former cellmate, child trafficker Daoyu (Ou Hao), and asks him for help in buying a male child “for a friend”. Daoyu says the trade in boys and girls is all controlled in the region by Auntie (Yan Ni), who only deals with people she knows; but he gives Zhu Shaoyu the name of a contact, Diao’er (Song Jia). Zhu Shaoyu first has sex with her and then does a deal that involves her re-finding Yang Zibo. She says the boy was was stolen by Haozi (Zhang Yicong), whom she uses to transport kids. Diao’er goes to the small restaurant where Haozi’s heavily pregnant girlfriend, Li Qi (Wen Qi), works to try to find out where he is. All Li Qi will says is that Haozi is away for a couple of days on a delivery for Diao’er. Zhu Shaoyu, who’s followed Diao’er, then follows Li Qi home; next day, when Li Qi is out, he searches her flat and takes a mobile phone he finds there that Rat has left messages on. Diao’er then contacts him and says Auntie wants to meet: Haozi has Yang Zibo, so Zhu Shaoyu should travel to Baishan to meet him and do a deal. Also, he should tell Li Qi that he’s been sent by Haozi to bring her to him, as he himself can’t come because he owes a local gangster, Chai (Zhang Benyu), a lot of money he doesn’t have at the moment. Li Qi checks with Diao’er whether Zhu Shaoyu is genuine; Diao’er tells her that he and Haozi once worked together. Meanwhile, to keep an eye on Zhu Shaoyu and Li Qi, Auntie sends along a mute street kid, Binggun (Gao Ziqi), who poses as Zhu Shaoyu’s son. Li Qi already thinks Haozi tricked her into becoming pregnant, and doesn’t really care for her; but she agrees to go on the journey so she can have a face-to-face with Haozi. All three take a late-night train from Danzhen station to Baishan. Meanwhile, Wu Weisong (Ma Yingchun), a police chief who is investigating the case of the missing Yang Zibo, interviews Yang Jie, who says she’s had no contact with Zhu Shaoyu since he went to prison and doesn’t know if he’s connected with the boy’s disappearance. She says she told her son a while ago that his father was dead. Wu Weisong comes to suspect Zhu Shaoyu is involved in some way and that Auntie’s child-trafficking gang is also connected. Zhu Shaoyu, Li Qi and Binggun are met off the train by Auntie’s daughter, Maoke (Wang Yueyi), and taken to a guesthouse run by an old lady (Ailiya). Li Qi is in bad shape, about to deliver her child at any time. When Haozi phones, Zhu Shaoyu tells him the exchange deal is the boy for Li Qi; later, Haozi texts a rendezvous – 06:00, tunnel no. 9. While Zhu Shaoyu is out buying cigarettes, Maoke spills the beans to Li Qi, who freaks out. When Zhu Shaoyu returns, Maoke tells him Auntie has ordered Li Qi to stay at the guesthouse. After Maoke attacks him, Zhu Shaoyu escapes in a car to the rendezvous point – but then Wu Weisong and his men, who have been pursuing Haozi, suddenly turn up and chaos breaks loose.

REVIEW

Mostly set at night, and shot in muted colours with dim lighting, Family at Large 三滴血 is a child-trafficking drama that’s much more successful as an exercise in atmosphere than as a coherently plotted story of a father searching for his snatched young son. Wrapped in late Feb 2021 but only released in Nov 2025, this first feature by writer-director Kang Bo 康博 takes place during the depths of winter in his native Northeast China and has a chill factor that’s almost tangible, with ever-present snow, wind and cold. Unfortunately, that – plus a strong cast led by actor Hu Ge 胡歌 (Gold or Shit 走走停停, 2024) and young Taiwan-born actress Wen Qi 文淇 (Angels Wear White 嘉年华, 2017) – isn’t enough to maintain interest over 100 minutes, given the wandering screenplay and dramatically confused third act. Box office was a feeble RMB22 million.

Now 42, Heilongjiang-born Kang, a graduate of the Beijing Film Academy, had worked on the script from at least 2018 after being inspired by the true story of a father who infiltrated a criminal gang after his child had been missing for three years. Initially titled 驯鹿, and known in English as both Reindeer (a literal translation) and A Touch of Warm, it later became 三滴血 (literally, “Three Drops of Blood”, a phrase meaning family ties), with the somewhat meaningless snd undramatic English title Family at Large. The Chinese title is also the same as a Shaanxi Qinqiang opera (with a completely different plot) that premiered in 1919 and has been filmed several times since 1960. Kang’s second feature, the relationship-cum-legal drama Enjoy Yourself 祝你幸福 (2024), written not by himself but by You Xiaoying 游晓颖 (Sister 我的姐姐, 2021), was actually released more than a year before Family.

The over-elaborate set-up centres on Zhu Shaoyu (Hu), who’s released from prison after four years for illegal logging and finds his three-year-old son has been snatched off the street. Though his wife divorced him while she was pregnant and he was in prison, and she brought up the child to believe his father was dead, Zhu Shaoyu sets out to track the boy down, using info from his onetime cellmate, a child trafficker (drily played in a cameo by popular actor-singer Ou Hao 欧豪). The complicated trail leads to a heavily pregnant waitress (Wen) who’s basically been ditched by her scumbag boyfriend who is now (probably) holding Zhu Shaoyu’s son; using a nickname (“Reindeer”) and a false backstory, Zhu Shaoyu persuades her to take him to meet her boyfriend, whom she’s also keen to unload herself on.

There’s almost enough for a whole movie in just the set-up – which also includes Zhu Shaoyu’s brief romance with female child-trafficker “Sable” (nicely played, as always, by Song Jia 宋佳) – before things properly get under way at the 20-minute mark with the leads’ train journey to Baishan. While they are travelling there, the viewer is also briefly introduced to Zhu Shaoyu’s ex-wife, as she’s questioned by a police chief who’s investigating the child’s case. Also hovering (unseen) in the back of the plot is “Auntie”, the boss-lady of the child-trafficking gang who’s ultra-suspicious of anyone outside her crime family. (Only seen much later on, and introduced in a very roundabout way, she’s played by the very well-known Yan Ni 闫妮, more often than not seen in comic roles.)

The over-elaborate set-up wouldn’t matter so much if en route it had brought the audience closer to the main protagonist. But through no fault of Hu – largely a TVD actor, with a less consistent record in his big-screen outings – Zhu Shaoyu remains a foggy figure, a creature of the film’s umbrous, wintry setting whose obsession with finding a son he’s never even met doesn’t make strong enough sense to justify what he puts himself through. If the viewer can put all that to one side, Family can still be partly enjoyed for its visual mounting, the rich array of characters (all colourfully nicknamed), and meaty performances – of which Hu’s is the most restrained, virtually an outside observer.

Aged 17 at the time of shooting, and still riding the wave of her early fame, Wen again shows her talent for emotionally visceral, working-class characters, here driven by a deep anger despite being heavily pregnant in a freezing, forbidding landscape. Other playing is strong down the line, with a crafty performance by Yan as the boss-lady, plus veteran Yang Xinming 杨新鸣 as a criminal pharmacist, Gao Ziqi 高子淇 as a Zhu Shaoyu’s minder, Ailiya 艾丽娅 as the weird landlady of a haunted-house-like guesthouse, Ma Yingchun 马迎春 as the police chief on everyone’s trail, and Zhang Yicong 张奕聪 as the scumbag boyfriend.

The mostly cacophonous industrial/electronic score by Li Heng 李衡 (crime noir Are You Lonesome Tonight? 热带往事, 2021) underlines the darkly-lit, chilly widescreen visuals by d.p. Fan Chao 范超 (Love Life Light 照明商店, 2023). The overall running time could easily be trimmed by some 10 minutes, especially in light of the screenplay’s confused (and confusing) third act.

CREDITS

Presented by Hehe (Shanghai) Pictures (CN), Zhijiang Film Group (CN), Beijing TH Entertainment (CN), MaxTimes (Hubei) (CN), Beijing Hero Films (CN), Ru Ni Suo Jian (Shanghai) Pictures (CN). Produced by Hehe (Shanghai) Pictures (CN).

Script: Kang Bo. Photography: Fan Chao. Editing: Li Heng, Li Tianming. Editing advice: Kong Jinlei, Yan Yiping. Music: Li Heng. Art direction: Zhong Cheng. Costumes: He Tianjiao, Tian Ye. Styling: Fu Lei. Sound: Si Yilin, Li Danfeng. Action: Nie Jun. Visual effects: Ye Zi, Sun Bo. Executive direction: Zhang Zhengquan.

Cast: Hu Ge (Zhu Shaoyu/Xunlu/Reindeer/Stag), Wen Qi (Li Qi), Gao Ziqi (Binggun/Popsicle), Yan Ni (Laoyi/Auntie/midwife), Song Jia (Diao’er/Sable), Gao Ye (Yang Jie), Ou Hao (Daoyu/Hairtail), Li Xueqin (kiosk owner), Yang Xinming (Qutongpian/Dope), Ailiya (guesthouse landlady), Ma Yingchun (Wu Weisong, police captain), Zhang Yicong (Haozi/Mouse/Rat), Wang Yueyi (Maoke/Sunflower Seed/Hinny), Li Hongchen (Hama/Toadie), Zhang Benyu (Chai), Wang Duo (Pan Meng), Liu Qianci (ticket collector on train).

Release: China, 15 Nov 2025.