Meet again after 20 years = Er shi nian hou zai xiang hui

Hanchun Shipyard’s new project to build a large ship is hampered by the supply shortage of imported welding rods. Director Yuan urged his former classmate engineer Chen Qiming to develop their own welding rods as soon as possible. Ms Zhu Hui, also a former classmate of Yuan, is assigned to be the general supervisor of the ship project. But Zhu refused to accept the offer as she learned that the marine surveyor was her ex boyfriend, Feng who left her as she refused to go abroad with him years ago. Yuan persuaded Zhu to take the job and brought about reforms to the ship plant, which was controversial and severely criticized by some senior workers, including Yuan’s own father. Yuan convinced his colleagues with reason and won their support. At the same time, the Shipyard is able to produce the welding rods with Chen’s research breakthrough. As the ship project comes to an end, Feng is approached by a foreign company who wants Feng to create some trouble for Hanchun Shipyard. Feng refused the bribery and finished his task. In the end, Feng proves that his criticism of the project’s problem, once misunderstood by Ms Zhu and her colleagues, is only for the good of the factory. Before Feng leaves China, Zhu resumes her friendship with Feng.

This film shows Chinese people’s changing idea about the reform launched by Deng Xiaoping in the late 1970s. The film should be understood in the context of the early phase of China’s “open-door” policy when Chinese state-owned enterprises were eager to absorb foreign technology and capital while making their own efforts to technology. (3 stars - Yuxing Zhou; December 16, 2010)