The daughter of a right-winger, schoolgirl Jing Qiu is sent to the countryside for reeducation, and tasked to help write a textbook. There she meets Lao San, a young soldier with a bright future ahead. Despite the class divide and parental disapproval, romance blooms against turbulent times.
A very sweet and sad tale based on one of the many stories from Cultural Revolution. It feels personal since the heroine claims that she wants to be a writer, and at the end of the film she goes abroad to study. Coincidentally, the author is a Chinese (American) living in Florida who seems to know exactly how it felt living under Mao Tse Tung. It was brilliantly translated to film by the accomplished Zhang Yimou.