A fairly typical rendition of the social and political complaints that became politically correct once China's "Gang of Four" were imprisoned and convicted, this melodrama relates the story of a few peasant women, told in a series of flashbacks. The story begins in the early 1940s, when the peasants are anxiously awaiting the arrival of the Communists to power. When they do take over, one of the women refuses to go through with an arranged marriage and marries instead the man she loves. We jump forward slightly and discover her husband has been thrown out of the party, the couple is living in dire poverty, and the Gang of Four are in power. Fast forward again, and the sufferings the family experienced are gone, because the Gang of Four is out of power. Their prosperity increases, the husband (now a much older man) is rehabilitated, and the future looks much brighter.
by Eleanor Mannikka
synopsis
