Hibiscus Town
부용진 (영화)
A 1986 Chinese film by Xie Jin from Gu Hua's 1981 novel. Hu Yuyin, who sells rice beancurd in a Hunan mountain town, loses her husband and home in the Four Cleanups and the Cultural Revolution and survives through love with the "rightist" Qin Shutian. Liu Xiaoqing and Jiang Wen star.
In depth
What is the story?
A mountain market town in southern Hunan. Hu Yuyin's rice-beancurd stall does a roaring trade. Her regulars include the granary head Gu Yanshan, the party secretary Li Mangeng, the freeloader Wang Qiushe and the "iron-hat rightist" Qin Shutian. After years of toil the couple build a new house in 1964. Then the jealous Li Guoxiang, manager of the state eatery, returns at the head of a Four Cleanups work team and everything is overturned.
Hu is classed as a "new rich peasant" and loses stall and house; her old flame Li Mangeng hands over the money she left with him. Her husband Li Guigui dies. When the Cultural Revolution comes, she and Qin are sentenced to sweep the stone street every day, and sharing that work they fall in love. When she becomes pregnant, Li Guoxiang and Wang Qiushe, themselves secret lovers, have them punished. Qin is taken away, and Hu bears a son in a hard labour with Gu's help.
In 1978 Qin returns and the stall reopens. Li Guoxiang still holds office, while Wang Qiushe has lost his mind.
How does it differ from the novel?
The largest difference is the husband's death: in the novel he commits suicide under false accusation, while in the film he is executed for trying to kill Li Guoxiang. The film was shot in Wang Village in Yongshun county, Hunan, which in 2007 took the name Furong Zhen thanks to the film.
Why does it matter?
The novel won the Mao Dun Prize in 1982; the film took best picture at both the Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers Awards in 1987 and the Crystal Globe at Karlovy Vary in 1988. It stands as a leading example of "scar drama". Time Out's Gilbert Adair admired its blend of the political and the personal, while the scholar Andrew Kipnis read it critically as naturalising a Dengist order of sex, gender and kinship.
Xie Jin's own life passed through these years. He took part in an anti-rightist film in 1958, and during the Cultural Revolution he worked on films such as Grand Festival, which Zhang Chunqiao arranged to celebrate his seizure of power.