Set against the backdrop of post-Tianamen Beijing, Family Portrait is an intimate picture of modern day life in urban China. If Bloody Morning is still reminiscent of certain traits common to most fifth generation filmmakers, then Family Portrait is a total departure from the latter, both in content and form. No longer interested in grandiose cultural/political allegories, the film depicts the gradual disintegration of a model family after the unexpected arrival of a son from an ex-marriage, focusing on feelings and emotions of ordinary folks, as well as details of everyday life. It is no accident that the protagonist is a photographer, seeing reality through the lenses, spontaneous, lucid, yet always at a distance.