Red Sorghum

Red Sorghum

1988 · 91 min · ZH · 7.1 (243 votes)
Dir. Zhang Yimou · Starring Gong Li, Jiang Wen, Teng Rujun, Liu Ji, Qian Ming, Ji Chunhua · Music Zhao Jiping
DramaRomanceHistory

An old leper who owned a remote sorghum winery dies. Jiu'er, the wife bought by the leper, and her lover, identified only as "my Grandpa" by the narrator, take over the winery and set up an idealized quasi-matriarchal community headed by Jiu'er. When the Japanese invaders subject the area to their rule and cut down the sorghum to make way for a road, the community rises up and resists as the sorghum grows anew.

VIBE

A sweeping, passionate epic of love and defiance set against the backdrop of war. It feels like a grand, operatic folk tale, full of visceral emotion and resilient spirit. A story of enduring love and the fight for survival.

epicpassionateresilientvisceralromanticsteadysweeping historical dramaoperaticvibrant cinematographyfolkloricloveresistancefamilysacrificenationalism
based on novel or bookrural areadistillery1940sjapanese occupation of chinawar crime
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