Germany & Luxembourg, 60min
Dir:  Christian Schidlowski

Welcome to Shanghai, capital of capitalism! In an unprecedented building boom that began in the 1990s, more than 2000 high-rise buildings have mushroomed to the sky, creating the world’s most erratic skyline. As Shanghai hurtles towards the future at breakneck speed, many historic treasures fall prey to the wrecking ball.

While his contemporaries pride themselves on investing in the future, Mr. Wong prefers to put his money on the past. Ever since he returned from Canada to China, the wealthy businessman has made it his mission to spend every penny he can on old houses: villas, wells and temples that belong to an old-and-fading Shanghai nobody seems to care for anymore. Whenever he travels the streets of Shanghai, he keeps his eyes open, ready to buy any house worth preserving before the sledgehammering begins. Stone by stone, Mr. Wong’s workers disassemble the old houses and bring everything to a large property he bought expressly for one purpose: setting up a kind of national park for endangered buildings.

Mr Wong's World is the humane and gripping story of a most unusual man realizing his vision against all odds, while also being an insightful portrait of the divided soul of modern China.

This film originally aired as a part of Doc-Debut, a regular series on Link TV highlighting unique and groundbreaking international documentary films.

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