Royal Uncle Cao is banished by the emperor because of his criticism. He becomes immortal with the help of other seven immortals, then the legend of Eight Immortals starts.

Freely adapted from Gabriel García Márquez's Chronicle of a Death Foretold, the film follows the investigation of a local teacher's murder in a small and desperately poor rural village, the story of the crime gradually pieced together from the fragmented memories of witnesses forced to testify at an inquest. Sharing with her Fifth Generation colleagues Chen Kaige and Tian Zhuangzhuang a remarkable eye for the barren landscapes of northern China and a fascination with small-town life — especially those enduring superstitions that Communism failed to erase — director Li Shaohong also introduces several formal innovations, particularly in storytelling structure, that remain unprecedented in Chinese cinema.

A married village worker teams up with an old girlfriend to try to dig a well for his water-starved village. The well collapses and they are trapped. Their enforced confinement leads to them exploring their feelings for each other and those around them.

Winner of the Hundred Flowers Award for Best Film in 1984

Several members of a Nationalist Chinese Army unit that is trapped between Japanese forces and another Chinese unit take revenge when their unit is almost wiped out.

Lamenting the accidental death of his comrade and model citizen Lei Feng, Qiao adopts him as a role model in serving his people.