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Whistle Stopper - Yellow Earth
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List Price: $19.98
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Your Save: $ 19.98 ( 100% )
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Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Starring: Tuo Tan, Xueqi Wang, Bai Xue, Quiang Liu
Directed By: Kaige Chen
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Average Customer Rating:  
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Audience Rating: Unrated
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9786302917055
Format: Color
ISBN: 6302917050
Label: Fox Lorber
Manufacturer: Fox Lorber
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Fox Lorber
Release Date: 1997-10-16
Running Time: 89
Studio: Fox Lorber
Theatrical Release Date: 1988
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Spotlight customer reviews:
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Customer Rating:
Summary: The life is not a question of ideologies!
Comment: 1939. A communist soldier is sent to a very remote province to collect to collect songs ( A visible homage to Bela Bartok, who gathered more than three hundred songs of the Hungarian Folk) , but additionally he will learn much more about the real life.
The admirable simplicity of this plot should not be an obstacle to appreciate the body and facial languages at a evry superior level.
This was the first Op. of this sensitive director of "fareweel my concubine" , Chen Kaige.
Customer Rating:
Summary: of Hammer...
Comment: In 1937 Chiang Kai-shek's KMT and Chairman Mao's Communist Party created an uneasy alliance because of the looming collective threat of the Japanese. Steeped in archaic traditions and KMT rule many areas of China especially in poorer, northern areas such as the upper half of Shanxi province still existed in a pre-modern time without having being enlightened by the changing times occurring in the south. Although pitied by the Communists, there was also a begrudging respect for some of the customs held by the peasants. In Yellow Earth the custom brought to the fore is folk singing.
A Communist soldier brimming with enthusiasm for the teachings of Chairman Mao and belief that the said teachings will revolutionize China and bring equality to the downtrodden classes, Gu Quing, or Brother Gu, travels to Shanxi in order to gather folk songs that can be sung by the Communists to inspire others of the plight of the poor peasants. Arriving at a time in which a wedding is taking place, Brother Gu witnesses what he believes to be the oppression of tradition on the populace: fourteen year old girls being married off to old men in which sustenance and dowries are more important than true affection.
Despite his differences of opinion, Brother Gu is quite an amiable fellow and takes residence with an old, weather-beaten farmer and his children. He works with the farmer and helps plow the fields while attempting to engage in conversation with the farmer. Most of his conversations center upon the changing times and how girls are now becoming soldiers and are learning how to read and young couples are able to marry out of affection instead of being matched together. The farmer listens politely, but his concerns primarily fall within practical matters such as if it will rain soon and the engagement of his young daughter Cuiqiao. However, the words do have a greater impact on Cuiqiao, a hardworking girl with an incredible singing voice. Through the kind being of Brother Gu she learns that there is another world where girls can read and men know how to sew. Engaged to a man many years her senior, Cuiqiao desires to join Brother Gu when it is time for him to return to his home. Yet, because of the Communist party's strict rules, she cannot join the party unless asked to do so. Therefore, she must wait for Brother Gu's return. However, can she wait long enough?
The only two Chen Kaige films that I have watched before Yellow Earth are the magnificent Farewell My Concubine and the magnificent travesty The Promise, so I was quite interested in viewing the respected director's landmark, debut film. Like seemingly most Chinese films that have been released in America, Yellow Earth is quite a sad film that shows a people torn between two conflicting times. However, like many of the other films created by the 5th generation film directors, which also includes the luminary Zhang Yimou who was the cinematographer for Yellow Earth, oftentimes the new and modern revolution of the old is just as bad as or worse than what was before. An important film for those interested in Chinese film and modern China, Yellow Earth does not make for an enjoyable film experience, but it does make for a poignant one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Yellow Earth
Comment: It is impossible to understand this film without a perspective of Chinese cinematic history. This movie is a strong revolutionary critique. It starts of as a typical revolutionary film, like those that were made during Mao's lifetime...and then it all falls apart. I'm sure many casual viewers have trouble with what seems to be a lack of plot. This film speaks about emptiness, emptiness of the land and people, and the empty promise of the communist party. It is a cyclic film, which in itself is a critique of the Party, as revolutionary films were linear, denoting progress towards a glorious future. In the Maoist era, films ended with people looking off toward the horizon, and at an implied modern and prosperous future. This film speaks of tradition and the earth as both nurturer and destroyer of its people. The cardre fails the people in this story, and the peasantry fall into greater poverty. The peasants revert to age-old rituals, rather than progress to a modern glorious future, a strong departure from Maoist thought and the new culture movement. The yellow earth is the birthplace of chinese civilization, the earth is home to the people and it defines them, rather than their party and class. The yellow earth is also in Yan'an, the birthplace of Mao's communist rule. Yan'an is a strongly symbolic concept for the communist party and the followers of Mao, so the failure, death and disharmony in this region symbolize the failure of the Party and its methods. The emptiness is a contrast to the lies of fulfillment the party expounded. The people and the Party are always separate from each other in this film, another strong divergance from he movies that came before. Emptiness in this film also brings up ideas of Daoist philosphy, another turn from the anti-traditionalist, modern minded party.
The film is also a rebellion against the rather talkative style of fourth generation films and their emphasis on the narrative.
Cuiquo symbolizes the people's endurance and their life on this land. The river she drowns in is the same river that sustained her. It is a story of endurance in the face of a cycle of suffering and loss. This endurance is represented in the never ending song cycle of the people. It is the a beautiful movie that speaks both of the age-old troubles and strength of the people of the chinese nation and of the failure of the party to fulfill its promise of a modern and glorious future.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Misreadings...
Comment: The reviewers who claim that this film sends propagandistic messages are way off the mark (perhaps they are the ideologues?). If anything, this film is a critique of the Chinese communist party. A kind communist party member offers to liberate the poor and needy (and most of them did in fact support the communist party) but in the end, way see that he/the party are not able to accomplish what they promised. The young girl, it appears, drowns.
Beautiful cinematography (thanks to Zhang Yimou). Learn to appreciate the colors of the yellow earth (and not the usual green snapshots that one typically enjoys).
Overall, one of Chen Kaige's best.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Interesting as quasi-documentary
Comment: This is one of those Chinese films of the 80's that seek to reclaim some of the traditional culture which the Communist regime at its most radical sought to destroy. In this case, folk music and ceremony.
The song and village culture are the stars, really, embedded in a stereotyped, propagandistic plot which features a kindly Red Army soldier/intellectual at the time of the Japanese occupation who is recording folk songs (hoping to adapt them for the army's use). Hearing a young girl/woman Cuiqiao with a lovely voice and a range of lyrics, and her father who sings bitter songs, he stays with the family, helps with their daily tasks as he records their songs, and indoctrinates them with the Maoist message, which takes root particularly in Cuiqiao.
Dreading a forced marriage and imbued with thoughts of feminine freedom and martial valor, Cuiqiao wants to go with the soldier when he leaves to rejoin the army. He promises to return when he has proper permissions, before the time for her marriage, and as the fateful time approaches we see him trudging back over the dry, eroded countryside ... will he rescue her from her fate, how will it resolve?
The cinematography (by Zhang Yimou) is excellent, and the landscape fascinating (although nothing is made of the likely human source of its desolation; this doesn't seem natural desert). The folk culture is interesting, though seems often too staged (and where do all those extra people come from for the big scenes?). And the soldier is just too goody-two-shoes, kind, brave, wise. I'd actually rate it about 3.5*, balancing everything.
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Editorial Reviews:
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A haunting, evocative film set in the barren wilderness of Northern Shaanxi province in 1939. The life of a fourteen year-old peasant girl is changed forever by the arrival of a communist soldier.
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