小武（王宏伟）是山西汾阳一个屡教不改的“惯偷”，即使公安部门在搞严打活动，他仍要想方设法下手。但是抛开所谓的“小偷”身份，他是个十分恋旧十分传统的人，亲情、友情在他心中都有沉甸甸的分量。但昔日亲朋好友早将他看作瘟神，惟恐躲避不及。无形之中，小武只能去做边缘人，换回某些满足和安慰。
某天在歌厅唱歌时，小武结识了陪唱小姐胡梅梅（左百韬），相似的心境让两人建立了某种暧昧的情感。然而胡梅梅明白，小武并非她的彼岸，她需要找到一个更有力的“臂膀”改变自己的命运。对此小武虽也明白，却在事情发生时仍无法抑制失落。面对自己的未来，处境更加尴尬窘迫的小武愈发茫然无措。

At Beijing World Park, a bizarre cross-pollination of Las Vegas and Epcot Center where visitors can interact with famous international monuments without ever leaving the city’s suburbs, a security guard betrays his dancer girlfriend by pursuing another woman.

一个出口被扎紧的麻袋里装着一群小狗，它们在麻袋里疲命挣扎，无果，发出悲鸣，似在抗议或被运走或被卖掉的命运的不公。
一条小狗从一个小小的破洞中奋力地挣扎出毛茸茸的头，它的模样吸引了很多人的目光，人们停下来聚集在它周围，开始饶有趣味地盯着它看。小狗终于将头钻出来的瞬间，没来得及看清麻袋外的景象，却先听到了一阵哄笑声。或许是感觉到了自己正在被人们当成展品参观，费力将头伸出的它停止了悲鸣和挣扎，只用一双深不见底的眼睛木然地注视前方。

A fragmentary landscape for a little train station in a suburban area and a bus stop in a mining town. A lonely soldier in his heavy coat, a tired old man, a bubbly young lady, a punk, a woman waiting in the street... From all those different people in these unfamiliar places, we can feel the exhaustion of every life.

As a decades-old state-run aeronautics munitions factory in downtown Chengdu, China is being torn down for the construction of the titular luxury apartment complex, director Jia Zhangke interviews various people affiliated with it about their experiences.

Throughout ten years of a key era in Chinese and Hong Kong history, a girl becomes fixated on a fellow commuter who she observes regularly. While the two never speak to one another, the girl captures her appearance and life changes during the years through various means such as photos and drawings.

2006 Documentary film directed by Jia Zhangke