75%User score 75 percent
A City of Sadness
1989 · Drama · History
User Score
1 votes
Three generations of "noodle makers" and their changing fates, intertwined with local Shaanxi folk songs, wedding and funeral customs, and the natural landscape of the Loess Plateau .
The film is based on the intangible cultural heritage of Shaanxi Wubu County — the traditional handmade hollow dried noodles (空心手工挂面) from Zhangjiashan. It follows the life of Zhang Jiagen (张家根), the first-generation inheritor of this noodle-making craft, and his struggles against fate.
Recommendations based on this film
PantaOz
April 25, 2026
This is a quietly devastating work of rural Chinese cinema that uses the seemingly humble craft of hand-pulled hollow noodles as a lens through which to examine three generations of human resilience on the Loess Plateau. Director 山石 (Shan Shi) and screenwriter 刘毓珠 (Liu Yuzhu) have constructed a film that moves with the unhurried rhythm of the land itself—deliberate, patient, and deeply rooted in the textures of north…
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