Shu Qi's new film 美人草 - Foliage

[roddy]

Anyone seen this / know anything about it? It's just turned up in the DVD shops in Beijing, but without English subtitles, so I'll wait before I get it (I can understand most films without the subtitles, but I spend so much energy listening I forget to enjoy the film)

Roddy

[laolee]

Haven't seen it but here's a summary from MonkeyPeaches:

When exploding population pushed cities throughout China to the limit of what they could handle, a solution was came out. Millions of teenage boys and girls were systematically sent to the countryside to live and do farming work, with their bare hands. They were told it was for them to make better contribution to the nation and they were there for being re-educated. The movement started in 1955 and reached the climax in the late 1960's. They are called Zhi Qing, or intellectuals youths.

The Foliage is set in 1974, at a rubber tree plantation near Vietnamese boarder, where hundreds of zhi qing from the cities live and work in militarized units. As the film starts, Ye Xingyu (Shu Qi) is asking the regiment leader to allow her returning home to take care of her almost paralyzed father. She gets no answer. On the bus to her unit, she meets Liu Simeng (Liu Ye), a handsome guy who seems having very positive attitude toward the life in largely uninhabited mountains. She already has a boyfriend, Yuan Dingguo (Fang Bin), a friend since childhood, and he is from a rival platoon. As the romance between them is building up day by day, the conflict between their platoons is also elevating. When everything finally settles, their relationship has also run into a sudden crash-end.

Ye Xingyu is allowed to return to her city and later marries to Yuan, who also returns home along with most zhi qing, after the end of the Cultural Revolution. However, a family and a daughter cannot make Ye Xingyu forget the time she spent with Liu Simeng.

Full article:

http://www.monkeypeaches.com/040307A.html