An old-fashioned soap opera of the type that can thrive only in a climate of social repression: in this case, Communist China. (Idle question: was it the Sexual Revolution that pushed American TV soap operas more and more toward crime dramas? And American movie soap operas more and more toward oblivion?) The part-time feminist heroine has built up a booming sesame-oil business, thanks very little to her drunken lazy husband, and she indulges herself in a long-running adulterous affair on the sly. But at the same time she manipulates a naive village girl into a foredoomed marriage with her epileptic half-wit son. And her newly struck business partnership with a "modern" woman of Japan points up her backwardness: she's too embarrassed to wear her gaudy gift scarf back to her village. The heroine's world and her moral muddle are completely enveloping. (1994) — Duncan Shepherd
This movie is not currently in theaters.