This cheerful domestic comedy takes us to a commune in a lush farming town in Northern China. There, the Chen family lives in relative harmony until the spectre of “bad behavior” rears its ugly head in the form of a daughter-in-law who selfishly hoards dumplings. When the ancient paterfamilias moves out in a huff, the small community sets about resolving the tensions using an inventive combination of traditional and modern methods. Zhao Huanzhang's vivid psychological portrait of a rural family is humanistic and complex. This idealized community functions like others with work points and party meetings, but Variety's reviewer notes that the film itself “posits above all the value and virtue of family life as the backbone of society.... In theme and even style, (it) could almost have been made at MGM in the 1930s.” The In-Laws was named best film by the Chinese Ministry of Culture and also won the fifth “Hundred Flowers” award.