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Poster for Yellow Earth

Yellow Earth

1984 · 1h 26m · N/A Drama
Directed by Chen Kaige

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Overview

A Communist soldier is sent to the countryside to collect folk songs for the Communist Revolution. There he stays with a peasant family and learns that the happy songs he was sent to collect do not exist; the songs he finds are about hardship and suffering. He returns to the army, but promises to come back for the young girl, Cuiqiao, who has been spellbound by his talk of the freedom women have under Communist rule and who wants to join the Communist Army.

Director and cast

Critics on Rotten Tomatoes

Top critics, in their words

All reviews
100%
Tomatometer
Fresh

The striking images of Yellow Earth... offer respite from a plot that bears the impress of the cultural arm of the Chinese Communist Party's Central Committee.

Walter Goodman, New York Times
Fresh

The film broke definitively with Chinese studio tradition and introduced a new sense of ambiguity in the relation between political ideology and praxis.

Pat Graham, Chicago Reader
Fresh

Yellow Earth is the most impressive film from mainland China unveiled so far in the West.

Variety Staff, Variety
Fresh

The first 'modern' film to emerge from China, and one of the most thrilling debut features of the '80s.

Time Out

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