Once upon a time there was a blind boy who inherited a secret prescription from his master. He was promised that the prescription had the power to restore his sight, but only if he devoted his life to music and broke a thousand strings on his banjo. He traveled from village to village singing ballads, and each time he broke a string, he tied a knot in a long rope. As the years went by he became known as the Saint, and like his master, took on a disciple, a young blind boy. With each broken string the suspense increases. Chen Kaige's tale deals with physical adversity and fate, but on a deeper level, it explores both the dangerous seductiveness of leaders who set themselves up as godlike authorities and the mythologies they tend to spin around themselves....A cautionary tale about the perils of naively surrendering to intoxicating ideologies and charismatic leaders."-Helga Stephenson, London Film Festival