Most Helpful Customer Reviews
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Under the shadow of the great wall, November 12, 2002
China is a huge country. Deserts, huge mountains,miles long rivers and also many different cultures and people are the geograpical landmarks of this country. Film takes us to a far place in China where people live in small villages that are close to the great wall. Nearest city is miles away and central and local authority is not available in close reach.Xinghua is a young married girl whose husband is the richest guy in village. He buys products from nearest city and sells them to villagers with taking advantage of his transport vehicle. He is a money wise person without manners, education and respect to his wife. He is obsessed with having a baby boy and hence forces his wife with ancient medicines, mistreating and blaming her for not being able to serve him properly .He also steal stones from the great wall in order to make quick bucks.Xinghua meets the better educated Fu lin who is miles better man with making money from the hard and honest way by planting fruit trees. An old story about a treasure surrounding a watchtower on great wall becomes alive and Xinghua's husband is suddenly after it with the rest of the village. At the same time xinghua and fulin are under the influence of deep emotions which seem to be out of control.
Director portrays the countryside and village life in this film very well with the simple but well established story. Village life, old legends and supernatural stories,traditions,
agriculture and rural life are all captured by camera without faking anything. Acting is very good, it is simple and effective.
Film carries many issues about China to the viewer. Despite the harsh communist regime of the past times, people seem to be very keen on carrying old traditions and way of life in these parts of china. Women are also mostly in difficult position having the responsibilities of an obeying wife and a mother of a baby boy. Giving a birth to a baby boy is still an important thing and often boys are called and treated as little princes. Xinghua is married with husband with a return of some money. We also witness a village marriage as girls leave as brides for other rich villages.Director expresses the role of women as the worker,wife and mother leaves nothing for herself thus loosing her character slowly.Of course these peroblems are not only China's, many other countries' countryside women also shares the same faith. Xinghua's house is mostly portrayed as a cold, dark place with loads of products .But her lover's house however is always shown in the morning,telling the xinghua's better future.The new period of the return of the free investment and getting rich and people's confused reaction to it are well told and portrayed. Xinghua's money hungry husband who even adds water to soy sauce and vinegar is a good example of the newly rich and Fulin's poor life which are criticised as the people of the times (maybe a bit overexagerated with portraying the rich)
The landscape, vast lands,the great wall,distant mountains,dusty hills and green plantations really add to the good acting and the story. The waste lands portrays the hopelessness and the green lands shows the hope and better future for xinghua.(her lover Fulin also lives in plantation area)
Well it is not the best chinese film that I ever seen but sure it is a very good one.It sure beats all these cold dogma nonsense and other meaningless hyper intellectual stuff from europe. You dont have to mess everything up and make it confused in order to make a good movie. Like story of xinghua, If you have a good and interesting story and a humble but qualified camera view ,being simple and pure always gives the best results.
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4 of 5 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars
Visually Impressive But Slightly Off The Mark, October 16, 1999
By A Customer
Xinghua is the wife of a local grocer - the village bigshot - largely because he owns a truck, and who makes extra money by selling stones from the nearby Great Wall (not the one in Beijing, but the one Nixon did not in fact think you could see from space). When Xinghua cannot bear him a child, she is beaten and humiliated, and seeks love elsewhere in the form of a young educated man living on a mountain who plants trees to conserve the soil. It's a good premise but somehow the film falls short of expectation. The character of Xinghua is a good commentary on the role of women in rural and feudal China earlier this century, but it's clichéd in delivery. Visually well-done though, and finding out why Xinghua can't give her husband the son he wants so badly is also a high point, but as to what that reason is, well you'll just have to watch for yourself! :)
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4.0 out of 5 stars
Intriguing Chinese love story with haunting sound track, February 2, 2008
One reviewer has clearly told many of the aspects of the story as well
as the setting. The lovely Xinghua was married to a wealthy brute. He beat her physically and mentally. He seeks a child and even rapes her in an attempt to create a pregnancy. This stone merchant, wine seller and
jack of all trades is an impotent bully. His abuse is hard to see and one wonders why she takes so much. A younger man who is planting trees
seeks his help. In return, he must help Xinghua plow the fields. He does
not want to admit his strong feelings. A key symbolic point occurs when their two spades enlock. While initially resisting, perhaps like a lady who plays a coy game, they entwine. Then she admits loving his love.
The abuser finds out that there has been a seduction. He first destroys most of the trees the man is planting, very angry over the seduction of
his wife. Then he beats her viciously until she confesses. She is pregnant but not with his child. The child was fathered by the more virile
young man. As a side plot, he feels there is buried treasure below one of the many towers of the Great Wall of China. Despite warnings from
elders and the young man, he organizes his crews and they start digging away at the huge gate. A mound of riches are found by one of his workers.
He claims it but in a storm, the round mound turns into the half-skull of
a man. While haunted by this warning, after learning his wife is pregnant,
claiming her child is his, the man runs into the gate to rescue the real
hidden treasure. As predicted, the huge tower collapses burying him in
the process. Xinghua is gently and understating portrayed by a great
actress. Roles of the brutish husband and young planter are also performed
excellently. There is haunting enchanting erie vocal sounds comprising the sound track. While a bit of the plot can be foreseen, the movie is photographed beautifully. Despite blank pages between scenes, the movie
is engrossing and flows smoothly. This is a movie to see. The VHS is
fine. Offers excellent insights into early 20th century rural Chinese
society and lifestyles too. I recommend this movie highly,
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