Set in 1979, just after the Cultural Revolution, a young performance troupe in Fenyang performs state-approved material as China begins to loosen its hold on everyday life. The group introduces four members in the opening arc: Cui Minliang, Wang Hongwei as Cui; Yin Ruijuan, Zhao Tao as Yin; Chang Jun, Liang Jingdong as Chang Jun; and Zhong Pin, Yang Lina as Zhong Pin. The mood is a mix of duty and curiosity, with Cui’s restless streak clashing with family expectations and elders, while he covets the worldliness he associates with Chang Jun’s trips to Guangzhou, where consumer goods become more accessible in a rapidly liberalizing economy. Cui’s pursuit of Yin Ruijuan is complicated by her father’s rigid military discipline, and Zhong Pin’s more liberal influence on her companion only fuels their tensions. In a pivotal turn, Chang Jun’s accidental pregnancy of Zhong Pin and the pressure to terminate tests the loyalties within the troupe and lays bare the fractures beneath the troupe’s glossy surface.
As the troupe begins to bend to Western influences and, ultimately, to privatization, Cui remains a creature of longing and disquiet, his heart fixed on Yin Ruijuan even as life pulls them in different directions. The others—Chang Jun and Zhong Pin—also navigate shifting loyalties and changing ambitions, while Yin quietly watches as the social landscape around them shifts with electricity spreading to rural villages and new forms of entertainment entering the mainstream. The journey brings them to Sanming, Cui’s uneducated peasant cousin, whose sister Wenying stays with Cui’s family, illustrating the widening gap between urban opportunities and rural realities. Sanming’s desperation leads him to take a low-paying job in an unregulated coal mine to help fund Wenying’s university dreams, a decision that underscores the stark costs of ambition in this era. Before the troupe departs, Sanming gives Cui five yuan to pass to Wenying, with a stern warning to tell her never to return, a moment that casts a long shadow over the family’s prospects and foreshadows the tragic ironies of progress. On the road, a muddy truck and the sight of a train roaring past for the first time become potent symbols of a country moving forward faster than its people can adapt.
Back on the road, Chang Jun and Zhong Pin’s relationship endures, while Cui continues to yearn for Yin Ruijuan, who remains emotionally cautious and often noncommittal. The troupe’s illicit, out-of-wedlock entanglements come under scrutiny, and after investigations, they return to Fenyang. Cui’s generosity toward Wenying—ten yuan this time—uncovers the limits of opportunity for a family in a period of transition; Wenying, disappointed by her brother’s prospects, questions the path laid out for her. Zhong Pin, meanwhile, severs contact with Zhang and the rest of the troupe, signaling a broader retreat from old ties as the group rebrands itself as a Shenzhen-based rock ensemble and resumes touring, albeit under precarious new management and with limited permissions. The road now takes them to the highway edges and even as far as Inner Mongolia, where performances are squeezed into roadside spaces and the troupe must improvise to stay afloat.
As the cycle of travel, reform, and hardship continues, Cui, Zhang Jun—whose role grows more complicated with the shifting politics of the era—and Yao Eryong, another troupe member, leave the old troupe and venture into a business dealing in construction materials. A chance encounter brings them face to face with Yin Ruijuan again, now working as a tax collector, her memories of the troupe’s glory days still vivid and poignant. The reunion is both a balm and a reminder of the fractures that time hasn’t fully healed. Cui, still bearing the weight of past rejections, makes a quiet, renewed effort to reconnect with Yin Ruijuan, a gesture that rekindles a fragile bond. The film culminates in a quietly hopeful turn: Cui and Yin Ruijuan are married, their son in tow, and as a train whistle signals closure over the credits, the pair looks toward a future built from the ruins and triumphs of the era they endured together.
In this sweeping, humane portrait, the story travels from post-Revolutionary investments in state art to the messy, intimate economics of family, desire, and belonging. It is a meditation on how a country’s rapid modernization intersects with personal dreams, how friendships bend under pressure, and how love can persist—sometimes quietly, sometimes stubbornly—amid the constant push-pull of a society in flux.
