Quartile rating: 8.5/10 · 1 rating
Married couple Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in mid-20th century mainland China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry.
Zhang Yimou's epic sweep through mid-20th century Chinese history is anchored by extraordinary performances from Ge You and Gong Li, who bring raw humanity to decades of suffering and resilience. The plot deftly weaves personal tragedy into the grand arc of Chinese history—land reform, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution—making the political viscerally intimate. The ending carries tremendous emotional weight, offering a bittersweet, hard-won hope that feels genuinely earned rather than imposed. Cinematography is accomplished and period-appropriate but not as visually audacious as Zhang's more stylized work. Novelty is solid but somewhat contained within the established tradition of Chinese epic melodrama; its distinctiveness lies more in its humanist restraint than radical formal innovation.