“Adapted from an enormously popular novel, Song of Youth was a large-scale production made to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic. As such, it was part of the large (and often hasty) production program associated with the Great Leap Forward.
“Set in the early 1930s during the Japanese colonization of northeastern China, Song of Youth is the story of a young woman who is finally tempered into a fine communist. Particularly beloved by Chinese student audiences, it celebrates the role of intellectuals in the revolutionary struggle. Made prior to the deterioration of Sino-Soviet relations by the early '60s, it is the only film of the program to make explicitly friendly reference to the Soviet Union.
“Xie Fang was given the opportunity to play one of the most important ‘star' roles ever available to a Chinese actress. Like Two Stage Sisters, Song of Youth features a strong female protagonist. Here, the heroine walks out on her reactionary husband (‘A Doll's House' is invoked by name) and goes on to become accepted as a revolutionary leader, albeit under the guidance of sympathetic men. Although much of the film's romantic rhetoric and stylization might now strike us as simplistic, the historical reconstruction is scrupulous, and some individual scenes have great agitational power. Song of Youth is also the first film directed by the veteran actor Cui Wei.” --Adapted from a program note by Scott Meek and Tony Rayns, British Film Inst.