Lan se de hua

A small Chinese village. For centuries, here, as throughout the country, the working peasantry lived with the dream of owning land. They rose up against the landlords many times, but never achieved victory. And then the dream came true... Dramatic episodes from the life of this village show us how land reform was carried out.

A taut wartime thriller, Red Crag: Life in Eternal Flame anticipates the paranoia and violence of the imminent Cultural Revolution while harking back to the aesthetic splendour of the Golden Age Shanghai cinema of the late 1940s. (This opulence is largely due to the work of cinematographer Zhu Jinming, the master visual stylist of Shangrao Concentration Camp and other key "Seventeen Years" films.) The film concerns a hard-boiled woman working in the Chongqing Communist underground during World War II, whose commitment to the guerrilla cause is only intensified after she witnesses her husband's head mounted on the city walls by the Nationalist forces.

Financial and political pressures bankrupt a Chinese store owner.

Yang Bailao, a tenant farmer, lives with his daughter Xi'er. The despotic landlord, Huang Shiren, attempts to forcibly take Xi'er for himself. On the eve of the Chinese Spring Festival, Huang forces Yang to sell his daughter as repayment of the debt Yang owes him.

At the age of 16 Zhou Lian, who lost her parents at the age of two and was raised by a stepmother, marries Jiang Mei, a progressive young man from Changsha No. 1 Normal School. Jiang Meiqing has also lost both of his parents. The couple has two sons, Liqun, Xiaoqing and daughter Xiaolian. The film follows the family through turbulent times from 1924 to 1930.