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      In the Heat of the Sun

      1994 2h 14m Drama List
      Reviews 96% 500+ Ratings Audience Score Rival gangs battle for supremacy on the streets of Beijing during the Cultural Revolution. Read More Read Less

      Audience Reviews

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      acsdoug D I was hoping for a depiction of the cruelties and injustices of the Cultural Revolution. Instead, I got an average coming of age story that just happens to take place in 1970s Beijing. It could have taken place anywhere. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 07/02/23 Full Review s r Some captivating things that show some of the intricacies of Chinese culture in this coming of age drama. Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars 03/31/23 Full Review Audience Member Sometimes, may be a kind of sound and a stream of smell, can bring you back to the truth. This film is a portrait of memory and childhood,thru the viewpoint of a boy growing up in the Cultural Revolution. It tells a story mixed with both facts and imgainations. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 02/21/23 Full Review Audience Member 如果我早生十年，如果我是个男孩，如果十年后我再看这部电影……或许我就会跟别人一样潸然泪下或者唏嘘流逝的童年吧？ 现在看我感触还不是很深。唯一有所共鸣的，是那老北京的景儿和老北京的音儿。但仅仅凭这一点，此片也已经让我感动颇深了。可见七十后和八十后看这个电影时会有的感同身受和酸楚心情…… Rated 3 out of 5 stars 02/08/23 Full Review Audience Member Really outstanding film that takes on the cliches of the coming-of-age, nostalgic memoir - deconstructing literary pretension and pedantic filmic technique with self-reflexive humor. The protagonist, Monkey/Ma Xiaojun plays on that character from Journey to the West, but also mocks Russian literature and film in some film-within-a-film reenactments. He's more than just a semi-autobiographical stand-in for Jiang Wen and Wang Shuo, as there is a strong element of critical nostalgia. The scenes of idealized adolescence, suffused with golden Summer light give way to some very violent, sexual impulses and parodic militarism. A much more effective critique of the Cultural Revolution than a one-dimensional story might more typically provide. The unreliable narrator even dismisses the entire account at key points, slowing and reversing the film to reveal his own self-celebratory tendencies. And unlike the typical coming-of-age blather, the culminating sexual encounter is a disturbingly semi-comic attempted rape and counter-rape. The end credits are important, not only for an appropriate Volker Schlondorff dedication, but for a contemporary drive-by shot that drives home the point of the whole. Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars 01/26/23 Full Review Audience Member As the initial nostalgic glow gives way to a more reflective and ironic look at the days of the Chinese cultural revolution, Jiang Wen's In The Heat Of The Sun turns into a beautiful and heavily bittersweet memoir of youth spent in an almost recklessly unsupervised haze. Jiang is tapping into a powerful source here, adapting Wang Shuo's superb original novel. There's more hints at romanticism in Jiang's adaptation however, especially in his account of the budding puppy love betwen Xia Yu's and Ning Jing's characters. But the alarming cuteness is cut short by some politically edgy stuff, like the delightful toungue in cheek use of the Internationale as musical backdrop to a street brawl between less than heroic thugs. Notice also Jiang's nod to mentors Chen Kaige and Zhang Yimou in the casting of Wang Xueqi as Xia Yu's military father, in a weird way reprising his role in The Yellow Earth ten years earlier. Rated 4 out of 5 stars 01/29/23 Full Review Read all reviews Post a rating

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      In the Heat of the Sun

      In the Heat of the Sun (1994) In the Heat of the Sun (1994) In the Heat of the Sun (1994) In the Heat of the Sun (1994) View more photos

      Movie Info

      Synopsis Rival gangs battle for supremacy on the streets of Beijing during the Cultural Revolution.
      Director
      Wen Jiang
      Screenwriter
      Wen Jiang, Wang Shuo
      Genre
      Drama
      Original Language
      Chinese
      Runtime
      2h 14m