The Blue Kite (1993) on Netflix
In Beijing in 1953, Chen Shujuan and Lin Shaolong marry on Dry Well Lane. A year later their son Tietou is born, and his father builds him a blue kite.
- Netflix4.4/5
- IMDb7.5/103,533 votes
- Rotten Tomatoes100%
Trailer
Plot summary
Tietou, nicknamed Iron Head, looks back on growing up in Beijing in the 1950s and 1960s. His mother, Chen Shujuan, teaches school, and his father, Lin Shaolong, works in a library. After the couple marry on Dry Well Lane in 1953, Tietou is born a year later, and Shaolong makes him a blue kite. Mao's photograph, loud-speaker announcements and the visits of the neighborhood committee mark the Party's presence. Through a colleague, words of advice reach the Party in Shaolong's name as per the Hundred Flowers Campaign, without his knowledge, and a colleague named Li is coerced into giving statements against him. Shaolong's workplace meets to decide whom it must report as a rightist to fill Mao's quota.
Cast
Did you know?!Facts and trivia about The Blue Kite (1993)
Can contain spoilers, watch the movie first.
- The Blue Kite was banned by the Chinese government as soon as it was completed, and director Tian Zhuangzhuang was additionally handed a ten-year ban on filmmaking; the film then found a receptive international audience.
- Tian Zhuangzhuang finished shooting The Blue Kite in 1992, but while he was in post-production, organizations connected to China's film industry screened it, judged its political "leanings" a problem and blocked its completion.
