Hongsheng Liu

Soldiers act as sentinels in the city center after the liberation of Shanghai and they are facing all kinds of temptations.

A critical hit during one of China’s most politically charged periods, Zheng’s follow-up to his 1959 anniversary epics merged Soviet-style socialist realism with his own breakthroughs in film technique, specifically his use of continuous camera movement in the spirit of traditional Chinese scrolls. Tractor-kino at its finest, the film revolves around two rural lovers—one struck with a deadly disease—and their eventual survival thanks to socialist medical advances.

Xiao Cao is a young orphan living with her cruel aunt and uncle. She has a sisterly bond with her neighbour, Qing Qing, who is being forced into a marriage with a much older man by her older brother. Desperate to escape their unfortunate circumstances, the two girls manage to run away together on the day of Qing Qing's wedding. During their escape they coincidentally meet He Shiwei, a young university student who is also running away from his family due to an arranged marriage. After a few initial misunderstandings the three decide to travel together. However, things become complicated when they encounter the Fu family, and the family matriarch mistakes He Shiwei for her son, Fu Yuankai, who died 10 years ago.