Peter Chan takes the road less traveled with latest film

Peter Chan is taking audiences down a different path with his latest movie, The Road Not Taken, which made its Asian debut at the 2026 China Golden Rooster & Hundred Flowers Film Festival. Exploring family ties, personal loss and the search for a way forward, the film returns the director to the intimate human stories that have long defined his work.

The film, which is the opening movie of the festival's Domestic Film Exhibition, marks Chan's return to the realistic dramas that have shaped much of his career, following works such as American Dreams in China, Leap and Dearest. It also reunites him with actress Zhou Xun, nearly two decades after their 2005 collaboration Perhaps Love.

Starring Zhou as a renowned host, the film follows her character's efforts to rediscover herself and reconnect with her family after a series of setbacks, including the breakdown of her marriage and a diagnosis of early-onset Alzheimer's disease.

At a discussion following the screening, Chan compared the interaction between actors to playing tennis — a back-and-forth exchange in which each performer responds to the other. He recalled how Zhou and actor Wang Xiao, who plays her character's husband, took a brief embrace barely outlined in the script and gave it emotional layers of hesitation, approach and reluctance to let go.

Zhou said the trust and creative freedom Chan offered allowed the cast to put aside their inhibitions and experiment with their performances. Reflecting on her character's relationships with her parents and daughter, she said growing up also means learning to listen to others and understand their feelings.

Chan said the movie had brought him back to his original aspiration: telling stories about family relationships in a quiet, understated way.

"It's a Chinese story, but it's also a world story — audiences anywhere can understand it," he said.

Chan also said the film wants to convey a message: there is no single right path in life; what matters is how well people walk the path they choose.

"Tomorrow won't get better on its own. We have to make it better ourselves — and then tomorrow will naturally improve," he said.

The film is scheduled for nationwide release in the near future, according to its producers.