Evening Rain reflects the fight between Chinese people and the "Gang of Four" during the ten years of turmoil in China. It was directed by Wu Yigong

Wu Yigong

-Biography:Born in Hangzhou, Zhejiang Province, Wu Yigong enrolled in the directing department of the Beijing Film Academy in 1956. After graduation in 1960, he was appoint as director assistant in Shanghai Haiyan Film Factory....

 with Li Zhiyu, Zhang Yu, Lin Bin playing the leading role. This movie won the first Golden Rooster for best picture in 1981.

Plot

During the period that the “Gang of Four” was on the rampage in China, a poet named Qiu Shi who had been in prison for 6 years was secretly transferred from Sichuan to Wuhan by ship under the guard of Li Yan and Liu Wenying. They met six passengers on the ship – a poor girl named Xing Hua who had to sell herself to pay the debts, a just woman teacher, an old actor of Beijing Opera, a frail old woman who had just lost her son, a young worker that had a clear stand on what to love and what to hate, and a little girl in rags. One night, hopeless about her life, Xin Hua jumped into the river to commit suicide. Qiu Shi saved her and used his own experience to encourage the poor girl. All the people on the ship were deeply moved by this brave poet including Li Yan and Liu Wenying. Accidentally, it turned out that the girl in rags was Qiu Shi’s daughter and with the help of those people on the ship, Qiu Shi with his daughter finally got freedom.