She married the wrong man, tried to die, then waited for revolution to live again.
The film tells the story of Zhang Yilin who, after marrying the bureaucrat Shi Zifan, attempted suicide because she could not bear the oppression of feudal morality. After liberation, she finally broke off the relationship and returned to her hometown to marry her sweetheart.
Acting
Rong Yuan's suicide scene reportedly made audiences weep in 1950.
Direction
Xu Changlin blends Hollywood melodrama with Maoist messaging seamlessly.
Director
Changlin Xu
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Made just one year after Communist victory, this was part of a wave of films using women's liberation as propaganda for the new regime — marrying personal and political revolution.
Director Xu Changlin was later persecuted during the Cultural Revolution; many early PRC films like this were banned for being 'too bourgeois' in their melodramatic style.
CN
