"The commendable cast also includes Zheng Zaishi's granary director Gu Yanshan, a war hero wound in the front line, yet he must inure humiliation, calumny and disillusion in the peace time, Zheng emotively personifies a benevolent figure with all his might, his scenes of crapulous reminiscence and ebullition is among the most puissant. As for the two leads, Liu Xiaoqing doesn't shy away from the cynosure of Xie Jin's attentive camera, she comports herself with adequate dignity and dithery. Her Yuyin is spunky in the first half, who wears the pants in the family, then stricken down and devolves into a damsel in distress in the second half, passively accepts her kismet until gets revitalized by a new man in her life."

read my full review on my blog: Cinema Omnivore, please google it, thanks.

A film filled with 3 (or 4) dimensional human beings undergoing pressures from life, from politics, and from internal drives. Beautifully developed, showing transformation of all the major characters.

A small town or village is shown before the Cultural Revolution hits them. There is love, romance, and small business operations, well-portrayed.

Then new characters show up representing the national and provincial leadership. They too act out their own needs in this societal context.

Finally, after the "Cultural Revolution" has passed, the characters resume their lives, but much has changed--and some things never change.