Demonstrating just how different literature and filmmaking can be, filmmaker-turned-writer-turned filmmaker Dai Sijie botches an adaptation of his own best-selling short novel. Teenaged Ma (Ye Liu) and his best friend Luo (Kun Chen) are sophisticated city boys who, along with thousands of others, are sent to the remote Chinese countryside as part of Mao's effort to "reeducate" the children of bourgeois enemies of the state (Ma's father is a physician; Luo is the son of a disgraced dentist) through the mythical purity of peasant life. Stripped of all the trappings of their decadent lifestyle — Luo is allowed to keep his beloved violin only after the quick-thinking boy...
Released:
2001
Rated:
NR
Length:
111 mins