Sacrificed Youth (1986)

Sacrificed Youth 1986 / 青春祭 1986 / Souvenir de la jeunesse , Sacrifice of Youth , Qingchun Ji , Qing chun Ji

This is a melodrama about the re-education of a woman from the city during the Cultural Revolution. Li Chun is sent to work on a commune in Yunnan, near the Burmese border (the Sipsongpanna area), where the Dai people live a happy, uninhibited and friendly existence (at least according to this drama). Li Chun was a medical student but was sent to Yunnan for re-education when her parents landed on the wrong side of the Red Guards. The tough, argumentative old coot in charge of the farm comes to be one of the people Li Chun likes best. But Li Chun has a hard time of it at first because even though she's willing to work her fingers to the bone, no one is willing to accept her.