Safflower of Tianshan

Adapted from a novel of the same title, this film depicts a young woman’s transformation from housewife to loyal Communist. This process is presented as “natural” – possessed of inherent logic rather than merely “incidental”. Hence, the film is really about Communist revolution that won over the hearts and minds of Chinese youth.

Four students in Shanghai have recently finished university. All are unemployed. Xu contemplates suicide but his friend Zhao talks him out of it. Zhao lives in a shabby room with just a flimsy wall of planks separating him from the room behind. Miss Yang, in town to take a factory job, moves in behind. Her nails into the wall knock Zhao's photos down. The unseen neighbours start playing tit for tat... Zhao gets a job as proofreader at a newspaper. He sees that pretty girl on the tram to work every day. He doesn't know her, but it's Miss Yang... Zhao is assigned to cover labour conditions for the paper. He is sent to a factory, the one where Miss Yang works...

A soldier finds his new role in the transition from war time to the construction era.

In the mid-19th century, at the height of the Opium War, the Chinese people rose up against the feudal system and the Manchu dynasty, which had capitulated to foreign invaders. ... With their heads bowed, peasants in chains trudge along, those who refused to give money to crush their rebellious brothers. Suddenly, their path is blocked. It is Song Jing-shi who has come to their rescue with his detachment. The freed peasants joined Song Jing-shi. This is how the core of the Black Flag Army was formed. The first historical film made in socialist China in the 1950s. The script is based on authentic material collected in villages in Shandong Province. Legends about the cruelty of Sen Gelinzin and the bravery of Sun Jing-shi, who is called the "Chinese Spartacus," still live on among the people.

The sailors on a Kuomintang warship revolt, arrest their officers and defect to the Chinese People's Liberation Army.