Movie

Yellow Earth

1984 · 91 min

A slow, visually striking meditation on tradition and change, with a quiet emotional pull and a haunting sense of place.

Directed by: Chen Kaige
Genres: Drama, Music, History
Starring: Xue Bai, Wang Xueqi, Tuo Tan

Tagline: After tradition… comes revolution.
Overview: 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.

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In the UKNo streaming, rental or purchase options known.

Directed by: Chen Kaige
Genres: Drama, Music, History
Starring: Xue Bai, Wang Xueqi, Tuo Tan

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How it feels

Written by AI. It can be wrong.

Tone: melancholicstrength 3 of 3
earneststrength 2 of 3
bleakstrength 2 of 3
tensestrength 1 of 3
Pacing: slow-burn, 1 of 4, from slow-burn to relentless
Attention: demanding, 4 of 4, from background-friendly to demanding
Themes: trauma
isolation
class
freedom
Places: countryside
small town
Era: period
Audience: adult
Form: nonlinear
Content intensity: Gore none
Language none
Violence mild
Sex none

All scales, 0 to 10

Scales, 0 to 10
Scale	Value	0 to 10
Action	1
Horror	1
Humour	1
Realism	8
Romance	1
Tension	4
Darkness	6
Complexity	7
Emotional weight	8

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Where to watch in the UK

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Streaming data from JustWatch.TMDB

Details

Genres: drama, music, history
Directed by: Chen Kaige
Written by: Chen Kaige, Ziliang Zhang
Starring: Xue Bai, Wang Xueqi, Tuo Tan, Quiang Liu
Music: Zhao Jiping
Cinematography: Zhang Yimou
Runtime: 91 min
Country: China
Languages: Mandarin

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Yellow Earth

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