Poor Folk is the second feature movie directed by Taiwanese director Midi Z, which is packed with Return to Burma (2011) and Ice Poison (2014) by the distributor as the director's "homecoming trilogy." The trilogy depicts the lives of illegal immigrants of Chinese ethnicity on the border of Myanmar. Midi Z completed Poor Folk in the same year after Return to Burma, which grabbed international attention in many film festivals. The film presents a realistic portrayal of the life of a handful of ethnic Chinese, who try to make a living at the Thai border by drug or human trafficking.Poor Folk received sponsorship from the HBF Film Fund at the Rotterdam Film Festival and was selected by the International Film Festival Rotterdam, Busan International Film Festival, and Vancouver International Film Festival. It was the first Taiwanese film to be nominated for the Hawaii International Film Festival since Cape No. 7 (2008).