Dream and Memory on AllMovie

A friendship between a New-York based Chinese artist and a Mainlander set during China's Cultural Revolution provides the motivation for this drama. This film is the first in a series of projected films using independent Chinese filmmakers in China by C&A Products, a New York production company. Half of this film was shot in China, and the other in New York. It focuses upon Hong Yuan, a blind man who lives with the American widow of his uncle. After he receives a letter from Ai Cheng, his old friend he begins to remember his days in China during the Revolution fifteen years ago. He and Cheng had been propagandist artists in the late 1960's. They had been assigned to paint wall pictures in Stone Village. There Hong fell in love with a village girl. Artistic differences caused Hong and Cheng to dissolve their partnership. The film jumps from past to Hong's present life in New York where he talks with his aunt. He is also involved with a woman who is afraid to tell the blind Hong that she is black.