Yellow Earth

Yellow Earth (1984)

黄土地

After tradition… comes revolution.

A communist soldier is sent to a remote region of China in order to collect folk songs. Staying with a peasant family (a widower with two small children), he discovers a community whose way of life is completely alien to him, but he gradually wins their trust.

Date of release
1984-08-19
TMDB
7.2 / 10 (61)
Runtime
1h 31m
Genres
Drama, Music, History
Director
Chen Kaige

Casting

Interesting facts

Yellow Earth is a 1984 Chinese drama film. This film is telling a story of a young, village girl who bravely resists old-dated customs and searches for freedom. It was the directorial debut for Chen Kaige. The film's notable cinematography is by Zhang Yimou. At the 24th Hong Kong Film Awards ceremony on 27 March 2005, a list of 100 Best Chinese Motion Pictures was tallied, and Yellow Earth came in fourth. The film was produced by Guangxi Film Studio.

Production

The music in Yellow Earth, composed by Zhao Jiping, reflects the regional characteristics of northern China and plays a role in defining character and atmosphere. Zhao created distinct theme pieces for the four main characters. Drawing from field research and local folk music traditions, the compositions were intended to match the personalities and social roles of the characters.

The use of folk songs in the film has also been discussed beyond its regional musical style. Mary Ann Farquhar argues that the storyline of Gu Qing travelling to the Shaanbei countryside to collect folk songs connects the film's music to a larger symbolic contrast between yang and yin: Gu Qing is associated with yang—masculinity, movement, and revolutionary action—while Cuiqiao, the yellow earth, and the Yellow River are associated with yin—femin…

The film further sets the peasants' traditional folk songs against the revolutionary music the Party seeks to put in their place. Gu Qing's assignment is to collect folk tunes and rework them with communist lyrics, and W. K. Cheng reads the closing scenes—Cuiqiao singing a revolutionary anthem as she rows into the Yellow River, and the villagers' prayer for rain—as the Party's incorporation of the people's voice.

According to cinematographer Zhang Yimou, Yellow Earth features minimal camera movement and emphasizes static compositions, which he described as "almost like a 'dumb photo' shooting." The extensive use of long and static shots conveys a sense of "stillness", in alignment with the film's themes.

The scholar H. C. Li discusses the film's visual style in terms of landscape and distance, observing that Yellow Earth opens with panoramic views of Shaanbei terrain and relies on striking compositions, long shots, and crowd scenes to generate emotion and atmosphere.

Read on Wikipedia · Text from Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. Data from Wikidata.

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