Yellow Earth (1984)

Original title

黄土地

Directed by

Chen Kaige

Genre

drama film

Country

People's Republic of China

Runtime

1h 29m

Rating

7.2 of 10 from 61 voters

Elsewhere

IMDb

How it feels

A young village girl in 1930s China struggles against arranged marriage and rigid traditions. She longs for a freer life as the Communist army passes through her region.

contemplativeausterevisually poeticmelancholicslow-burnstarkdefiantsymbolic

What happens

Yellow Earth (simplified Chinese: 黄土地; traditional Chinese: 黃土地; pinyin: Huáng tǔdì) is a 1984 Chinese drama film. This film is telling a story of a young, village girl who bravely resists old-dated customs and searches for freedom. It was the directorial debut for Chen Kaige. The film's notable cinematography is by Zhang Yimou. At the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony on 27 March 2005, a list of 100 Best Chinese Motion Pictures was tallied, and Yellow Earth came in fourth. The film was produced by Guangxi Film Studio (simplified Chinese: 广西电影制片厂; traditional Chinese: 廣西電影製片廠; pinyin: Guǎngxī Diànyǐngzhìpiàn Chǎng). Zhang Yimou, a colleague of Chen, photographed the film. Richard James Havis, author of Changing the Face of Chinese Cinema: An Interview with Chen Kaige, said that the film was the first Chinese film "at least since the 1949 Communist Liberation, to tell a story through images rather than dialog." Therefore, the film attracted controversy in China. Havis added that the film "was also equivocal about the Communist Party's ability to help the peasants during the Communist revolution", a position which differed from that espoused by the propaganda films that were produced after 1949." (from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA)

Trailer

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