In the Wild Mountains
(Ye shan)
by Yan Xueshu
China
Script: Yan Xueshu, Zhu Zi
Cinematographer: Mi Jiaqing
Art Director: Li Xingzhen
Editor: Xue Xia Qiang
Music: Xu Youfu
Cast: Du Yuan, Yue Hong, Xin Ming, Xu Shouli, Tan Xihe, Qiu Yuzhen
Production: Xi'an Films Studio
Year: 1986
35 mm, Colour, 100 min
OV Mandarin with French Subtitles
Huihui and his wife Guilan are working on their land in a traditional way, in their village from the Mounts Quiling. Huihui does not like changes. On the opposite, Hehe, who has seen a bit of the world as a soldier, is quite enterprising. He is separated from his wife Quirong and his children, and stays with Huihiu and Guilan. Discouraged by her husband passiveness, Guilan welcomes Hehe’s initiatives : farming silk worms first, then collecting squirrels’ excrement’s for medical use. Huihui is quite opposed to these initiatives. He is upset by people gossiping about Quirong and Hehe, and they have now introduced modernism by giving electricity to the village. Huihui divorces Guilan and marries Quirong, who is closer to his image of the Chinese woman at home.
In the Wild Mountains belongs to the intimist movement in Chinese cinema, where the hero does not criticise a group or an institution, but is interested in changes of mentality.
"It is only by striking the conservative forces and indolence rooted in our national temperament that we can create an awareness for need of changes. Only from that point can our society evolve. I think this is the real theme of the film." Yan Xueshu
