ROUGE OF THE NORTH

In Shanghai in 1910 the beautiful Ying-ti is an orphan who escapes a life of poverty by marrying a rich but demanding blind asthmatic hunchback. His family looks upon her with contempt and their constant rebuffs drive her to an attempted suicide. After her husband and his dowager mother die, Ying-ti continues her lonely life with her teenage son. As she grows older her embitterment grows and ironically she forces her son into a marriage not unlike her own. Gradually, she retreats into an opium haze. ROUGE OF THE NORTH is a powerful and beautiful film which paints a highly critical portrait of a woman's role in traditional Chinese society.