Yu Zhang

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The story of a northern Chinese peasant wife in the 1920s whose personal life is played out against a background of sweeping political change.Read More »

Synopsis
Narrow Street is the story of two youths: Xia, an easygoing, good-humored mechanic, and Yu, who is rather shy and delicate. They first meet in the late sixties, during the chaotic days of the Cultural Revolution in China. The chaos and desperation around them strengthens their friendship, but one day Xia discovers that his friend actually a girl. Yu then tells him her story – the sufferings of her family, why she had to disguise herself. When Xia tries to find a wig for her, he is badly beaten, and by the time he leaves the hospital, Yu has disappeared. The film is a powerful condemnation of the political radicalism of the Cultural Revolution and shows how ordinary people were victimized during a decade of turmoil.Read More »

This film had a deep influence upon China in the 1980s, as it was beginning to come to terms with the Cultural Revolution.

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Evening Rain, a feature film co-directed by Wu Yonggang and Wu Yigong, is about the years of the Cultural Revolution. Qiu Shi, a well-known poet, is wronged during that political movement. He is aboard a passenger ship bound for Chongqing from Wuhan under the guard of a young man and a young woman. In the third-class cabin, there is a village girl who has sold herself to repay her family debt, a woman teacher who speaks out from a sense of justice, an old actor who has had a full taste of suffering, an old woman who is on her way to commemorate her son killed in the violent factional struggle, and a righteous young worker. Read More »

In the northern Chinese city of Manzhouli, they say there is an elephant that simply sits, unaffected by the pain and tribulations of the world at large. Manzhouli becomes an obsession for the protagonists of this film – a longed-for escape from the downward spiral in which they find themselves inextricably bound together. Among them is schoolboy, Bu, on the run after pushing Shuai down the stairs, who was bullying him previously. Bu’s classmate Ling has run away from her mother and fallen for the charms of her teacher. Shuai’s older brother Cheng feels responsible for the suicide of a friend. And finally there’s Mr. Wang, a sprightly pensioner whose son wants to offload him onto a home. In virtuoso visual compositions, the film tells the story of one single suspenseful day from dawn to dusk, when the train to Manzhouli is set to depart.Read More »