The Blue Kite
When it became clear at some point during production that the Chinese government would ban this film, the producers smuggled the negative to Japan, completed post production there and sold the rights worldwide. Peking was not amused, and in consequence, director Zhuangzhuang Tian was not allowed to work for several years.,Featured in Siskel & Ebert: Red Rock West/Clifford/Threesome/Silent Tongue/The Blue Kite (1994),The Crow Song
Traditional,Beijing of the 1950s, as seen through the eyes of Tietou, a little boy. As a child, his father gives him a blue kite. The events of the day sweep the family into chaos, including the father, Lin, who becomes entangled in political intrigue with Mao's communists and winds up in a work camp. Hedies soon afterwords by a falling tree.

Tietou's widowed mother marries her dead husband's former colleague, Li, who tries his best to improve his wife and stepsons lives. The Great Leap Forward occurs and the wave of starvation claims Li as a victim.

The third husband is a party member with a relatively luxurious home at the time of the cultural revolution in China and they get caught up in the terrible violence of the Red Guard and I'll just say that no one lives happily ever after. The Blue Kite is a brutally honest look at China's interesting recent history; a sad but true tale.,