Quitting

Quitting
DVD cover for Quitting
Directed by	Zhang Yang
Produced by	Peter Loehr Imar Film
Written by	Zhang Yang Huo Xin Based on the life story of Jia Hongsheng
Starring	Jia Hongsheng Jia Fengsen Chai Xiuling
Music by	Zhang Yadong
Cinematography	Wang Yu Cheng Shouqi
Edited by	Yang Hongyu
Distributed by	Sony Pictures Classics (United States)
Release date	4 September 2001 (Venice Film Festival)
Running time	112 min.
Country	China
Language	Mandarin Chinese

Quitting (Chinese: 昨天; literally: "Yesterday") is a 2001 Chinese drama film directed by Zhang Yang, starring and based on the true life story of Jia Hongsheng. Jia, an actor and former drug addict, battled his addiction to marijuana and heroin for five years from 1992 to 1997. All members of the cast, from Jia and Jia's family members right down to the doctors and patients at a mental institute Jia was admitted to, are real people playing themselves. The film premiered at the Venice Film Festival on 4 September 2001 and clinched the NETPAC Award.

The original Chinese title is an allusion to The Beatles classic song "Yesterday". References to The Beatles, of whom Jia was an avid fan, are also made throughout the film. Besides dressing up like John Lennon, Jia also fantasized himself as Lennon's son and recited the Chinese translation of the lyrics to Let It Be religiously. However, Michael Jackson, who owned the rights to most Beatles songs, declined to give permission for the song or its title to be used in the film. Instead, the film uses songs by Chinese rockers such as Cui Jian, Tang Dynasty and Dou Wei.

Jia Hongsheng, graduated from the Central Academy of Drama in Beijing in 1989, gains fame in the late 80s and early 90s as an actor in films such as The Case of the Silver Snake and A Woman from North Shaanxi. During rehearsal for a stageplay titled Kiss of the Spider Woman (also directed by Zhang Yang) in the fall of 1992, Jia first comes into contact with marijuana and subsequently becomes addicted and even experiments occasionally with heroin. In 1995, after filming Weekend Lover, Jia quits acting completely and lives off his younger sister Wang Tong. An avid fan of The Beatles, Jia listens to their music obsessively and begins to imagine himself as the son of John Lennon.

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