“(Legend of Tianyun Mountain) was the most popular film of its year in China, but its political daring also made it the object of intense controversy. Told in flashbacks, it exposes a typical injustice of the ‘anti-rightest' purge of 1957: the political persecution of a geologist heading a survey team at Tianyun Mountain. His fiancée leaves him to marry an ‘acceptable' cadre instead; 21 years later, stuck in a loveless marriage, she learns of the miserable fate of her former lover and determines to work for his rehabilitation. But her husband, now responsible for the district, blocks her every move.... Xie's visual style is as assured as ever, although the film's aesthetic is somewhat old-fashioned by Western standards. But there's no mistaking the film's urgency, or the depth of its feeling.” Tony Rayns, London Film Festival '83