Xiu Xiu: The Sent-Down Girl (1998)
Directed by
Quite moving
Reviewed by Simon on 2001-10-16
Xiu Xiu is a beautiful young girl living in Cheng Du with her parents and friends. She signs up for the "educated people to the mountains and plains" program, by which the Communist party hope to spread education more widely through the land. But the ideals of the party are a long way from the mountains where Xiu Xiu ends up with a castraded horse trainer. She is forgotten by the authorities, and despite the friendship she devlops with Lin Jao she wants to return to Cheng Du.
When a visitor promises her help in exchange for sexual favours she relents, but it soon becomes apparent she is just being used.
The film is bleak and free of romance, but quite moving. The locations are beautiful, but it's not a film that is going to cheer you up.
