AllMovie

In a tale with an overt message: be kind to your spouse while you can because fate may separate you sooner rather than later, Musheng is a ferry-boat operator who tends to ignore his wife, a slave to housework, child-rearing, and animal-tending. When pains in her stomach are eventually diagnosed as incurable cancer, Musheng has an understandable change of heart and begins to express more respect and affection for his wife. But his changed attitude cannot alter the truth of his wife's terminal illness -- or take back the years of neglect.