AllMovie

This earnest propaganda ballet film from communist China has several things going for it. First, it retells a popular story. Second, it is well-choreographed. Finally, the camera work is good and it has good sound. In the story, a peasant girl is taken as property by a landlord in payment of taxes owed by her uncle, whom the landlord has killed. In the tax-collecting landlord's possession, the girl is terribly abused, and she runs away, foraging off the countryside. As she wanders, her hair turns white. Soon she joins the Red Army and gets vengeance on the murderous landlord. The dance style used in the movie is a combination of classical ballet with local acrobatic forms and mime.