Qiao is the girlfriend of a mob boss named Bin. Together they have a lot of power in Datong, an old mining city that now has become poor since the price of coal dropped. After Bin's boss is murdered, Qiao suggests that they run away from everything and get married, but Bin isn't interested. One night a group of motorcycles overtakes their car, and the riders begin attacking the driver and Bin. At first Bin fights them off, but there are too many, and they begin to beat him, claiming their intention to "dethrone" him. Qiao grabs Bin's handgun from her handbag and fires a warning shot into the air, and then another, scaring off the attackers. The police tell Qiao that the gun is illegally owned, and asks her whose it is, but she repeatedly claims that it's hers. She spends five years in prison for possessing an illegal firearm, and Bin does not visit her during that time, despite her saving him and taking the fall for him. After she is released, she tries to call him, but can never seem to get in touch. She travels by boat to the city in Hubei province where he's living, and she is instead greeted by his new girlfriend—Bin hides in another room. Qiao says that if he wants to break up with her, he'll have to tell her himself. She has almost no money to her name, and she schemes ways to con a few strangers for money and food. She hires a motorcycle driver to take her to the power plant where she thinks that Bin works, and along the way the driver suggests that they have sex. She uses this opportunity to steal his bike, and when she gets to the power plant she reports to a police officer that the driver tried to rape her and that he should call her boyfriend Bin. This finally forces Bin to see her. They rent out a hotel room to talk out their problems. Bin says that he's a changed man, no longer a "jianghu" gangster, and he has no place in his life for Qiao anymore. He can never go back to Datong because he has lost all respect that he once had there. Qiao says that she saved his life and took the blame for him: he should have been waiting for her the day she got out of prison. Since he refuses to say it, she finally says that their relationship is over, and he leaves. On a train back to Datong, she meets an interesting passenger who claims to be developing a UFO-hunting tourism company, and he invites her to join him after she claims to have seen one herself. But after they transfer onto another train, he admits that it had all been a lie: he actually runs a convenience store. She gets off the train while he's sleeping, sees a bright object fly swiftly overhead, and makes her way back to Datong. Years later, Qiao gets a call from Bin, and when she picks him up, she finds him in a wheelchair, unable to walk. She brings him back to their old gambling parlor where she now works and many of his old friends are happy to see him. He is closed-off and hot-tempered, immediately starting fights, and Qiao nearly throws him out. He tells her that he had a stroke from drinking too much and she finds a doctor to help rehabilitate him. When he can walk again, he sneaks out of Qiao's building with just a brief voicemail to say he has left. Qiao goes to the front door when she learns he has gone but she does not see him.
Ash Is Purest White grossed $422,814 in the United States and Canada, and $11.6 million in other territories, for a total worldwide of 12 million.
Critical reception
On review aggregatorRotten Tomatoes, the film holds an approval rating of 99% based on 147 reviews, with an average rating of 8.16/10. The website's critical consensus reads, "Ash Is Purest White finds writer-director Zhangke Jia revisiting familiar themes while continuing to observe modern Chinese society with an urgent, empathetic eye." On Metacritic, the film has an average weighted score of 85 out of 100, based on 34 critics, indicating "universal acclaim". A. A. Dowd of The A.V. Club gave the film a B+. The theme of self-sacrifice, rather than revenge, has been highlighted, with the context of the development of China. Barack Obama included the film on his 2019 end of year favorites list.
