Han Jie’s feature debut draws on his own experiences growing up in a desolate mining district in northern China’s Shanxi province. A Chinese road movie, Walking on the Wild Side charts a young gang’s continuous flights from one kind of trouble to the next. Mirroring the stark and barren landscape, the film relays the grim story of these delinquents’ dreams of liberty and easy money. Played by nonprofessional actors who are real life troublemakers, the film offers a realism that is at once oppressive, cruel, and sympathetic.

中国西北某煤矿小镇，贫穷、落后、闭塞，让生活在这里的少年看不到未来的方向，只任凭青春的躁动肆意释放。喜平（白培将 饰）便是这座小镇中众多边缘少年之一。他的好友流流——某煤矿老板的公子——搭讪学校里的漂亮女孩，结果遭到校内小混混小四一伙的袭击。气愤的喜平带着流流和二宝闯入学校。喜平将小四打得头破血流，不省人事。事后他们得知小四可能重伤身亡，于是仓皇踏上逃亡之路。三个莽撞懵懂的少年闯荡未知的世界，遭遇着世途之险恶，经历着友情的背叛，更品尝着死亡的苦果…