Set in the fictional Chinese city of Slinkytown, successor The film stars the filmmakers’ regular lead, Shen Teng, who plays Ma Chenggang, a hard-working but impoverished family man who seems to have been bypassed by the country’s prosperity.

He lives with his wife (Ma Li), young son Jiye (Xiao Bochen) and mother-in-law in a run-down courtyard house in the city center. Chenggang rides a donkey and a cart to work while the women toil at home and the hardworking Jiye commutes between the local school and the school.

But it becomes clear almost immediately that this is all just a trick. Chenggang is actually a hugely successful businessman who runs a huge empire, and everyone in the community seems to be at his service.

His humble home is equipped with secret doors and corridors that lead to an underground command center from where Chenggang and his staff pursue their sole mission: to ensure that Jiye receives a simple upbringing, free from wealth and privilege.

Only when he comes of age and has proven to his father that he has become an honorable young man will he learn of his huge inheritance.

In order for Chenggang to carry out this confusing, obviously absurd project, The Truman Show-like folly, every aspect of Jiye’s life must be carefully orchestrated.

Teachers, doctors, shopkeepers, even the local media fall in line to keep up Chenggang’s charade. They even go so far as to lie to Jiye about his health, constantly challenge him with complex mathematical equations, and even pose as English-speaking tourists to encourage his development.

The play is mainly for broad laughs, which rarely tickle the humor, it is difficult to see successor as anything but a thinly veiled criticism of states in which information, education, health care, etc. are largely regulated by a single central authority.

Furthermore, the filmmakers clearly portray Chenggang as misguided and his actions ultimately have a detrimental effect on Jiye’s development, making the film’s wide release and enthusiastic reception almost puzzling.