COLLECTION · Series · 2013

工人大院

Original title

During the Great Leap Forward, life was poor, yet people managed to sustain the simplest kind of life through faith and human connection. Linghe Power Plant had recently welcomed Lu Zhenhai (played by Guo Xiaodong), a technician whose solid professional skills won him the respect of plant leaders and veteran workers alike, as well as the affections of many young women, including Yang Yuhuan (played by Che Yongli), the plant's beauty. But Master Lu had eyes for only one person: Qiao Fangcao (played by Wu Yue), a village girl living in the workers' compound. Fangcao, pregnant before marriage, had come to seek refuge with her elder sister Fangye (played by Liu Lili). In that era of conservative morals, this posed no small problem for her sister's family—all the more so because the father of the child was none other than Lu Zhenhai. Meanwhile, the small compound never lacked for domestic drama: Jiang Hanzhi, a stubborn woman determined to marry Lu Zhenhai; Luo Dache, who already had six daughters and still wanted a son; Zhang Jinsong, who caused an uproar by painting artistic nudes; and so on. The Chinese people of that particular era savored life's bittersweetness with their plain and honest emotions.