Ye shan

I no longer write reviews on IMDB, but once in a while, an undiscovered gem will remind me anew of the guilty pleasures of being a cinephile. This film is virtually unheard of outside China, but if director Yan Xueshu were to never make another film, he would be remembered for this masterpiece alone. Who knows how many gems lie undiscovered in the vaults of Xi'an Studio?

Had "In the Wild Mountains" been *only* a peasant's tale set in rural China, it wouldn't have devastated me so much. It's also a complex and tragic tale of human desires, both erotic and otherwise, made more complex by the socio-economic situation of China during that era. In similar yet quieter ways, this film is a seismic statement as groundbreaking as "Yellow Earth" made two years before, and "Red Sorghum" that is to come.