No Man's Land

Pan Xiao, a young lawyer, goes to a rural small village settled in the western desert lands of China to handle the case of a falcon poacher who has ran over a policeman. Pan wins the case through sophisticated reasoning and forces the poacher to give him his car as a reward. Then, he just drives back home, but the return will not be an easy one.

Despite its small-scale budget of $2.3M, No Man's Land became a commercial juggernaut, earning $41.8M worldwide—a remarkable 1702% return. The film's unconventional structure found its audience, showing that strong storytelling can transcend budget limitations.