Lu ming cui gu (1981)

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Director:

Chengyi Hu

Genre:

Family

Plot:

A 15 year old soldier in the Volunteer Army fighting the Japanese becomes resposible for 3 other children he finds while seeking the main Chinese force. One of the children is an infant for whom the others find an unusual source of milk. |

Cast

Li Han	...	Yadan
Jiwen Zhu	...	Tiezhi
Kexin Zhu	...	Wenwen

Country:

China

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Company:

Shanghai Film Studios

Based on the novel with the same title

The literal translation of the title of this movie is: Doe's echo in the Green Valley.

Based on the true story of a young guerrilla who lost contact with the main force. Although it happened during World War II, there was no battles fought after the young guerrilla member got lost, but he did establish the trust and friendship between himself a doe who just lost its fawn by first sharing his corn with it, and the friendship and trust eventually spread to all kids. This part of the history was in the novel but omitted in the movie. The rest of the story was accurately reflected in the movie and you have to watch the movie yourself to find out.

What was even more amazing and not told neither in the novel nor in the movie was that after the World War II, the deer survived the Chinese civil war, thanks to the remote and inaccessible location, and but two of the youth did not, both were killed in battles in the Chinese civil war after the rejoining the guerrilla. The remaining kid was discharged from the army after the revolution, and he was assigned as a forest police/patrol at the valley where he first met the doe.

During his patrol, he always shared his food with deers he encountered as a way to show his appreciation for the doe whose milk saved the baby when they were in the mountains, even though the baby later died in the city after the revolution. One day, a doe with a fawn came to him and did not move on like the rest of deers after finishing the food he gave them, and the forest patrol recognized the doe was the one he met when he was with other guerilla members and the infant during World War II, and the doe still recognized him.

Ever since that fateful day, the doe established her territory next to the forest patrol's post and they visit each other daily, or perhaps her territory was already there before the cabin was built. During the extreme harsh winters, the doe would stay in his cabin, but whenever the is enough food in the nature, the doe would go out to fend for herself, though the doe would never refuse the food the forest patrol offered to her. The doe could never be tamed a domestic horse, but the friendship and the trust the two forged was always there, and she would always visit his cabin, until her death.

This untold part of the story was even more touching than the part that was told in the movie and novel, and a movie of this untold part should be made into a movie also.