The Poetess Li Qing-Zhao = Li Qing Zhao

The film presents a romanticized biography of one of China’s most famous poets, Li Qingzhao (AD. 1084-1155). The film begins with the young Li Qingzhao showing her poetry talent at a party for the so-called elites (scholars and government officials). Feeling jealous of Li’s talent, a scholar, Zhang claims that “ignorance is a virtue for women”. Another scholar, Zhao Mingcheng condemned this view and sang high praise of Li Qingzhao’s poetry. Li and Zhao got married and had a short and happy time together before Zhao left home for his archeology work. Around the year 1127, the Jurchens invaded the Hans and Li Qingzhao witnessed all the terrors of war as she went to look for her husband. However, Zhang, the one embarrassed by Li and her husband at the poetry party but now a senior official, tried all his best to prevent the couple reuniting. Li’s husband soon died and Zhao sent people to bribe Li to write complimentary poems for the decadent Song government, which Li refused. In Li’s later years, she completed the unfinished work of her husband and wrote many more famous poems. Li Qingzhao is perhaps China’s most famous poetess of all time. Many of her poems have become Chinese classical literature.

The film’s title character, Li Qingzhao, is played by China’s well-known actress XIE Fang, who starred in films such as Song of Youth (1959) and The Threshold of Spring (1962). (3 stars - Yuxing Zhou; May 21, 2010)