Although The One and the Eight by Zhang Junzhao (photographed with astounding originality by Zhang Yimou) was the first real major work of the modern Chinese cinema that we conveniently came to label as the Fifth Generation filmmakers, Chen Kaige′s Yellow Earth was the one that made it to the international scene after its presentation at the 1985 Hong Kong International Film Festival. A simple story of a Red Army soldier who went on a folk song search trip from the Communist base in Yan′an to the remote villages of Northern Shaanxi quickly dissolves into a painful realization of the complexity and strength of Chinese peasant traditions. The soldier who had come as a saviour left the area with problems totally unresolved, leaving behind the child-bride whose only possible destiny was to join the eternal waters of the Yellow River and her mildly retarded younger brother who was plunged in absolute solitude against the tide of the peasants′ prayers for rain. What makes the film so striking at the time is not only its ambiguities and its many possible allusions, but above all its subversion of the conventional cinematic language in post-1949 Chinese cinema. With its bold visual composition and rich imagery, the film echoes some of the most innovative works of the thirties. (Wong Ain-Ling)