by Eleanor Mannikka
synopsis
This melodrama focuses on the misfortunes of a talented musician whose curse is to have lived in the wrong time period. He's a virtuoso of the zheng, a classical musical instrument that Mao Zedong's Red Guard finds offensive and retrograde, and so the musician is considered to be feudal and a threat to the new China. His instrument is prohibited, and under these trying circumstances his wife leaves him. Later on, his son is imprisoned in a labor camp. The son hopes to get to Hong Kong and freedom once he is released, and even sells the zheng to raise money, but to no avail - he is cheated and never makes it out. Even after the musician dies, the perfidy continues in this film that lambastes the Red Guards and Western consumerism alike.
