A Story of Women

A road movie from one of the few women directors of China's 'Fifth Generation' (Peng's subsequent film was halted in mid-production, and she moved to New York). Three peasant women from a village near the Great Wall decide to earn some money by taking their spun and dyed yarn to the free markets in the cities; they travel first to Beijing, and then much further south to Chongqing. Their journey embodies a panorama of women's lives in present-day China, taking in everything from the weight of patriarchal traditions to the issue of enforced abortions. Peng achieves a convincing level of naturalism and keeps melodrama at bay.