Jia Liu

When the villagers in Qingshuilian village along the Xiaoli River in northern Shaanxi have to evacuate to intruding forces of Hu Zongnan, only a stubborn grandfather is left behind.

A teenage girl during Japanese occupation of Northeast China joins a group of bandits to get revenge after her friend is brutally gang-raped by the invaders.

A kind-hearted village girl attempts to raise a child whose father was taken as a political prisoner.

After the major campaigns, the Liberation War’s focus shifted to the northwest. Hu Zongnan retreated south, and Fang Zhiqiao led his remnants to Mount Hua, known for its rugged terrain. Fang deployed forces at key passes, but a military intelligence officer, with herbalist Chang Shenglin’s help, cut off enemy communication by reaching the North Peak. A political offensive led to the surrender of the enemy at Qianshi Zhuang, controlling all passages between the North and West Peaks. Trapped, Fang Zhiqiao’s troops, with shattered morale, launched a futile counterattack, leading to his despairing lament.

After being swindled out of his land by a local landlord in 1930s China, a grandfather commits suicide. His son burns down the landlord's house in a fit of rage, then escapes to join the PLA. His grandson later joins the PLA too in the 1940s to avenge his father, grandfather and mother.

Adapted from the novel with the same title. This is a tragedy that occurs in modern China. By a vivid description of the frustrated life story of Gao Jialin, a high school graduate who is first dismissed from teaching post and then enrolled as a journalist in the city and finally dismissed from the post and become a farmer again, this movie presents the young man as a serious issue of how to deal with their life.