Under the Hawthorn tree

Nowadays, while film producers tend to make films about loves relating to materialism, pure loves obviously become rarer and more appreciated than ever before. Under the Hawthorn Tree, the latest work by director Zhang Yimou based on the same- named novel of Ai Mi, brings about a belief of a pure and unmingled love, even though it is set in dying days of Chinese Cultural Revolution. The film beautifully tells the story of a high- school student, Jingqui who has a troubled family background: her father languishes in a labour camp and her mother is fearful that any transgression will bring further disaster. She is one of many educated urban youth sent to the countryside to be "re-educated" under a dictate from Chairman Mao. When she arrives with a group at Xiping village in the Yangtze River's Three Gorges region, where there is a hawthorn tree regarded as ‘hero tree’, she meets a charming geology student Sun, who is the son of a high-ranking military officer. Jing is the most beautiful, innocent young woman Sun has ever seen, and Jing, emotionally and vulnerably, is amazed by him. What follows is inevitable. They fall desperately in love despite their disparate social backgrounds and a political atmosphere that forbids the relationship. Unfortunately, their budding romance is cut shot by fate that is Sun’s deadly disaster- leukemia. I found the plot is simple without dramatics and tremendous upheavals, but it is truly a tear- jerker telling a sensitive, heartfelt and searing love story. The purity of Under the Hawthorn Tree is shown in every moment of the film, from gentle make up and clothes to the moment two main characters holding hand the first time, the rustic way they express their care to each other. I cannot stop crying when seeing the scene in which after a long time Jing meet Sun again at the last minutes of his life. Sun cannot wait for Jing for one year and one month or until Jing is 25 as he promised, but he has waited for Jing his whole