Sunflower (Xiang ri kui), directed by Zhang Yang, is a semiautobiographical social history of China from the era of Chairman Mao to the present through the lives of a simple family, notably the only son Zhang Xiangyang, who was born in 1967, his father Gengian (played by Sun Haiying), and mother Xiuqing (played by Joan Chen). Gengian is a painter who was betrayed unintentionally by his best friend and fellow artist (played by Zifeng Liu) as a counterrevolutionary and sent away to a labor camp for reeducation just after Xiangyang was born, so he is primarily reared by his mother. Mischievous, Xiangyang one day at age nine (played by Zhang Fan) uses a slingshot to hit an old man who is walking on a street near home; the man happens to be his father, who has just been released, but his hands have been deliberately crushed so that he cannot paint any more. Upon his return, Liu wants his son to stop playing idly and begin instruction in painting. Unaccustomed to any discipline, Xiangyang is not eager to take painting lessons, so he is inevitably punished corporally to the point that he briefly runs away from home. Nevertheless, his talents as a painter improve. The film keeps track of the events of the era, notably Mao's death, the Gang of Four and their downfall, up to the era of small- and later large-scale capitalism. At age nineteen, Xiangyang (played by Ge Gao) sells greeting cards that he has drawn in order to be able to go with his friends to make his fortune in Beijing, but his father stops him from going. Meanwhile, apartments are opening up in town to replace the courtyards that families have shared for many years. Xiuqing is particularly keen on moving out of the family's old-fashioned abode to a brand new high-rise apartment. When the authorities continually pass over their application, Xiuqing in 1999 decides to get a divorce from Liu, and soon she gets an apartment. But her husband refuses to move into the new place, now free from her nagging. At the age of thirty, Xiangyang (played by Wang Haidi) has become an accomplished artist, and he is about to have an exhibition of his paintings. On the opening day, his mother shows up, but his dad stays away. Later, his father attends the exhibition and is impressed, but his health is failing. One day, he disappears from town and is never again seen. Xiangyang then honors the memory of his father by putting sunflowers in a pot outside his residence. The film, in short, shows the tension between a traditional father, a materialistic mother, and a liberated son in the midst of many drastic changes in China that might be summed up as a transformation from communitarian values to materialistic individualism. Although the father plays a traditional authoritarian role that frustrates his son and his wife, he proves to be an honorable man in many small ways throughout the years, and his son respects his memory most when he is gone. MH
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