Peach Blossom

A mining engineer acting as a technical translator is suspected of industrial espionage after sending an innocent telegram that is intercepted by a militant snoop. Placed under investigation and reassigned to a less sensitive department, but never informed of the reason for his demotion, he petitions to get his job back, sparking an increasingly obtuse series of Party meetings.

Engineer Zhao Shuxin has been promoted and clones a robot in his image to attend his meetings, resulting in comic situations.

In a small southern frontier town, an old man called “Nail Li” boasts about his chess skills by nailing a general piece to the board, challenging anyone to remove it. During this era, many young people moved to the countryside. The town’s new party secretary, played by Niu Ben, was angry after losing a game and sent his team to the city to find talents in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting. Wang Yisheng, a Beijing youth known as “The Chess Fool,” was mistakenly labeled a counter-revolutionary during the Cultural Revolution but was saved by those searching for him. Unconcerned about his destination, he was content with food and chess, saying, “What can relieve my worries? Only playing chess.” He became engrossed in the game, leaving memorable matches with various masters in the unfamiliar town.