leifeng75 I'm very down to earth about Chinese films. There's a few good ones like Suzhou River and Zhang Yimou's 'Huozhe' (Life). The rest I find to be overly catered for Western tastes, i.e. plenty of peasants and moralising tales of how bad Communism was for the tiny minority of privileged intellectuals.This film is definitely an exception. It is about a boy growing up in the Cultural Revolution, but shows the era with a kind of nostalgia that perhaps may be somewhat alien to the Western psyche. If you really want to learn something about how China experienced 'the Sixties,' then watch this if you can get a hold of it.On the down side, this film appears to be almost completely unavailable. If anyone knows of a DVD or video release anywhere, it would be much appreciated.

QiDi Since the first time I saw "Yangguang Canlan de Rizi" ("In the Heat of the Sun", actually if translated directly from the Chinese name, it would be "Bright Sunny Days"), it became one of my all time favorites. Depicted in a yellowish color, the movie is full of mood of reminiscence. Though I was born right after the "Cultural Revolution"(1966-1976), I heard a lot about it from the older people. Days of those years were humdrum at large but might be wonderful for youngsters. Schools were loose or even dismissed, students worried nothing except their adolescent affairs. Just as eagletc, another reviewer on this board, described: "there wasn't so much on concern in our mind, hence fighting against the children from other section in the military region became the only extracurriculum activity".What's great of this movie is that it exhibits to us so vividly the growth experience of one generation in a somewhat wild and beautiful way. It may be very touching for those who are acquainted with that period of Chinese history but may confuse and bore those who are not. Jiang Wen is not only a talented actor but also a genius director. There's another movie from him I also love, "guizi lai le". I would like to mention Wang shuo, the writer of the original novel "Dongwu Xiongmeng (Animals Are Savage)", who is the most creative contemporary novelist in China.

jkchang The "5th Generation" of Chinese cinema produced films about the Cultural Revolution and its tragic impact on the lives of all Chinese. The most famous of these films, "To Live" (Huozhe), "Blue Kite" (Lan feng zheng), and "Farewell My Concubine" (Ba wang bie ji) all relentlessly emphasized the terror, hopelessness, and death of the Chinese people living during Cultural Revolution. However, "In the Heat of the Sun" does something entirely different."In the Heat of the Sun" (alternatively translated as "The Day the Sun Shone Brightly") is among the first "6th generation" mainland Chinese films. Instead of focusing on the negative aspects of Mao Ze Dong's drastic cultural changes, Jiang Wen looks at these years through the eyes of the children growing up through the turmoil. Instead of watching adults face their worlds collapsing, we watch a gang of boys struggle to survive mature, and goof-off without any supervision whatsoever.The narrator/main character reflects on these years as the high time of his life, when he and his friends lived for each other and would die for each other. As a boy, the main character is simply searching for fun, for love, for anything to entertain himself. Such frivolous pursuits amidst the eerie emptiness of Beijing can come across as unseemly to those who will never forget the grief and sorrow caused by the Cultural Revolution.Cinematically, the film is shot very well, and the story is more complex than it might at first seem. Though, in my opinion, it is not on par with the aforementioned 5th Gen films, it is certainly unique and brings a fresh approach to coping with a sensitive subject material.Semi-SPOILER The director takes the plot and turns it in a manner that I have never seen in Western films. Perhaps the final irony of the film requires a Chinese mindset to fully appreciate, but I at least found the ending of the film to be frustratingly brilliant.

yingyuan It is not only a time for people over 40 years old in China to recall, but a touching story for everybody to get moved - a vivid reflection of the impulse and passion of teenagers in that restive years of Cultural Revolution of China. Lots of pain but always a time to remember. Salutation to Director Jiang Wen, who remains also the top contemporary actor in China.