{ "id": "epz91r5mhd", "slug": "wreaths-at-the-foot-of-the-mountain", "title": "Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain (高山下的花环)", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical", "label": "War and historical films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure", "label": "War action and adventure", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999", "label": "War action films released through 1999", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999.yr-1963-1998", "label": "Released 1963 to 1998", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999.yr-1963-1998" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000: Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "path": [ { "id": "geo.chn", "label": "China", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946", "label": "China · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.chn.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" } ] } ], "excerpt": "Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain (高山下的花环) is Xie Jin's 1984 Shanghai Film Studio war drama adapted from Li Cunbao's novella about the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War; it won Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers awards and drew 150 million admissions.", "snippet": "Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain (高山下的花环) is Xie Jin's 1984 Shanghai Film Studio war drama adapted from Li Cunbao's novella about the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War; it won Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers awards and drew 150 million admissions.", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.war-historical.war-action-and-adventure.war-action-films-released-through-1999.yr-1963-1998", "markdown": "# Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain (高山下的花环)\n\n**Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain** (高山下的花环) is a 1984 Chinese war drama directed by [Xie Jin](https://www.edgepedia.org/xie-jin), produced by Shanghai Film Studio, and adapted from Li Cunbao's 1982 novella of the same title. Set against the 1979 [Sino-Vietnamese War](https://www.edgepedia.org/sino-vietnamese-war), it follows a privileged army son who arrives at a front-line company intending to escape it, and the soldiers whose deaths transform him. The film was released nationwide in December 1984, won leading Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers awards, and is frequently ranked by Chinese audiences among the country's finest war films.[1](https://www.mifang.org/yl/cq/p21.html) • [2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2022/0805/c404063-32495558.html) • [3](https://finance.sina.cn/2023-11-21/detail-imzvizhu8494229.d.html?from=wap)\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Production | Shanghai Film Studio, 1984, color widescreen feature; director Xie Jin; screenwriters Li Zhun and Li Cunbao; cinematography by Lu Junfu, Shen Zhi, and Song Yongjia[1](https://www.mifang.org/yl/cq/p21.html) |\n| Source | Li Cunbao's novella, first published in *October* (《十月》) 1982, issue 6[4](https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-11-10/154216624483.shtml) |\n| Principal cast | Lü Xiaohe (Liang Sanxi), Tang Guoqiang (Zhao Mengsheng), He Wei (Jin Kailai), Tong Chao (Commander Lei), Ge Ke (Han Yuxiu), Wang Yumei (Liang Daniang)[1](https://www.mifang.org/yl/cq/p21.html) |\n| Release | Nationwide release December 1984; about 148 minutes[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2022/0805/c404063-32495558.html) • [5](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BD13107512?codeamparea=23&l=en&linkamp=library-area-filter) |\n| Awards | 8th Hundred Flowers Best Feature; 5th Golden Rooster Best Screenplay (Li Cunbao, Li Zhun); Ministry of Culture 1984 Outstanding Film award; in total four Golden Rooster and four Hundred Flowers awards[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2022/0805/c404063-32495558.html) • [6](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-05-03/detail-inhwrxaz0537274.d.html?vt=4) |\n| Audience reach | A reported 150 million admissions in China; 1985 Hong Kong release as *The Soul of the Nation Defenders* (卫国军魂) set a box-office record for a mainland film there[7](https://magazine.caixin.com/2011-09-13/100304645.html) • [4](https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-11-10/154216624483.shtml) |\n| Standing | Douban rating of 9.5, the highest of any Xie Jin film[3](https://finance.sina.cn/2023-11-21/detail-imzvizhu8494229.d.html?from=wap) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot and characters\n\nThe story is set in 1979 around Company 9 of a PLA unit stationed at Guangyuan, Sichuan. Company commander Liang Sanxi delays his home leave, though his wife is about to give birth, to await the newly arrived political instructor Zhao Mengsheng. Zhao is the son of a high-ranking cadre, transferred from the army political department's propaganda office; his posting to the company is a maneuver to work his way back to a comfortable city life, and he intends to stay only a few months.[1](https://www.mifang.org/yl/cq/p21.html) • [11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jTa4Bc67QA)\n\nWhen the unit is ordered to the Vietnam border, Zhao's mother Wu Shuang works urgently to arrange his transfer to the rear, even appealing to the army commander Lei Zhen. The blunt artillery platoon leader Jin Kailai, hearing of it, threatens to travel to Beijing at his own expense to file a complaint. The company goes to war; Zhao, shamed by his comrades' conduct, stays and fights.[11](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jTa4Bc67QA)\n\nThe film's emotional center lies in its treatment of sacrifice and its aftermath. Liang Sanxi dies in battle leaving a bill of debts (欠账单) that his mother, Liang Daniang, comes to settle, a detail that moved audiences to tears; Jin Kailai dies but is denied a merit citation, an injustice the film treats as outrageous; the commander Lei Zhen loses his own son at the front; and a young soldier nicknamed \"Little Beijing\" is killed by dud shells left over from an earlier political era. Commentators have identified these threads, the debt bill, the denied citation, the back-door transfer attempt, and the dud shells, as the film's willingness to confront real contradictions inside the army and society rather than present idealized heroes.[4](https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-11-10/154216624483.shtml) • [3](https://finance.sina.cn/2023-11-21/detail-imzvizhu8494229.d.html?from=wap)\n\n## The source novel\n\nLi Cunbao, then a choreographer and creator with the avant-garde song and dance troupe of the Jinan Military Region, spent seven months at the Yunnan front after the 1979 war began, recording battle plans and acts of heroism. What stayed with him were not the documents but what he called fragments of feeling: a Dai village elder scolding young women for washing martyrs' bodies in cold stream water, and a girl who had sold blood to buy eggs for wounded soldiers.[8](https://www.sohu.com/a/448569378_99907920)\n\nThe novella was published at the head of *October* issue 6 in 1982 and set off what contemporaries described as an unprecedented reading boom. Seventy-four newspapers serialized it; the Beijing Publishing House single volume reached 1.58 million copies; eight publishers brought the total print run to 11 million copies; and the work was translated into more than a dozen languages including Japanese, Russian, English, and French. In the Garland Publishing series of twenty volumes of world literature, it was listed fifth.[9](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2021/0701/c404063-32145779.html) In February 1983 the General Political Department's culture department issued a notice organizing the whole army to read the book, and that year CCP General Secretary Hu Yaobang bought 2,000 copies at his own expense and sent them to soldiers fighting at the Laoshan front.[2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2022/0805/c404063-32495558.html)\n\nThe story drew on an incident Li Cunbao encountered during interviews: a regiment officer with a transfer order tried to leave just as his unit was ordered to the front, was sent to the spearhead company by shouting comrades, repented, and earned merit in combat. Li made this soldier the prototype for Zhao Mengsheng.[9](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2021/0701/c404063-32145779.html)\n\n## Adaptation and production\n\nStudios competed for the adaptation rights once the novella caused a sensation. When Shanghai Film Studio's editors seemed to be losing out to a rival studio's generous offer, the studio head Xu Sangchu told them to promise the author one thing: if Li Cunbao granted Shanghai the rights, Xie Jin would direct. Li, who had already received a letter from his mentor Feng Mu and a telegram of more than 600 characters from Xie Jin, handed over the rights; Xie Jin is recorded as vowing that if the film came to nothing he would never make another movie.[7](https://magazine.caixin.com/2011-09-13/100304645.html) • [8](https://www.sohu.com/a/448569378_99907920)\n\nThe screenplay was a collaboration between the original author and the established writer Li Zhun (李准). Li Cunbao drafted a film version in twenty days, which Li Zhun then revised; the film script appeared at the head of *PLA Literature and Art* in 1983.[8](https://www.sohu.com/a/448569378_99907920) • [2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2022/0805/c404063-32495558.html) Shooting took eight months, slow even by the standards of state-studio film production on celluloid, sometimes only eight or nine shots a day.[10](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_32513382)\n\n**Military scale and technique.** The production received substantial army support: one infantry division, one howitzer regiment, and one tank regiment were mobilized for the shoot, and Xie Jin used as many as six cameras. The film is described as China's first multi-camera production, and its attention to detail extended to authentic equipment on screen, including Type 62 tanks, and tactical details such as one-handed magazine changes.[6](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-05-03/detail-inhwrxaz0537274.d.html?vt=4) • [3](https://finance.sina.cn/2023-11-21/detail-imzvizhu8494229.d.html?from=wap)\n\n## Reception and awards\n\nAt trial screenings in Beijing and Shanghai before release, the film drew unanimous praise, and the film bureau of the Ministry of Culture and *People's Daily* jointly convened a symposium in November 1984. [Liu Baiyu](https://www.edgepedia.org/liu-baiyu), then an adviser to the General Political Department's culture department and vice-chairman of the Chinese Writers Association, called it art that shakes the soul and a breakthrough in military-themed cinema, pointing to the contradiction of a martyr whose aged mother and young widow must repay his debts as a truth of the era. Participants credited the film with breaking taboos in depicting contradictions within the army and in bringing heroes close to ordinary people.[12](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1984/11/19/7/)\n\nThe film won the Best Feature award at the 8th Hundred Flowers Awards, the audience-voted prize, with awards also for its leading actor, supporting actor, and supporting actress, and at the Golden Rooster Awards, the expert jury prize, it took Best Screenplay along with Best Actor and Best Supporting Actor; a later account summarizes its total as four Golden Rooster and four Hundred Flowers awards. It also received a first prize among the Ministry of Culture's 1984 Outstanding Films.[13](https://hre.pro.edu.tw/online_intro/97) • [2](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2022/0805/c404063-32495558.html) • [6](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-05-03/detail-inhwrxaz0537274.d.html?vt=4) • [14](https://www.bnasie.eu/Asset/Source/bnBook_ID-1950_No-01.pdf)\n\nIts commercial reach was exceptional. Even with a stage play and a television version already in circulation, the film recorded 150 million admissions in China. In 1985 it was released in Hong Kong under the title *The Soul of the Nation Defenders* (卫国军魂) and set a box-office record for a mainland Chinese film there.[7](https://magazine.caixin.com/2011-09-13/100304645.html) • [4](https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-11-10/154216624483.shtml) It was also included in the exhibition months held in Lanzhou for the 35th anniversary of the People's Republic, appearing in the second batch of ten features screened from November 21 to December 20, 1984.[15](https://www.gsdfszw.org.cn/gssz_58/dyl_69/lzs_224/dwsjwhsyz/201707/P020171107639350940026.pdf)\n\n## Legacy\n\nThe film has retained an unusually high standing. On Douban it holds a 9.5 rating, the highest of Xie Jin's films, and it is among the most re-edited and commented-on classics in Chinese short-video commentary, often labeled \"the best Chinese war film.\" Whenever new domestic war films appear, such as *[Assembly](https://www.edgepedia.org/assembly-2007-film)*, *Youth*, *The Eight Hundred*, or *The Battle at Lake Changjin*, viewers compare them with it.[3](https://finance.sina.cn/2023-11-21/detail-imzvizhu8494229.d.html?from=wap) • [16](https://www.1905.com/m/news/touch/1648355.shtml)\n\nScholars place the underlying novella as a turning point in 1980s military literature: it broke the convention of writing soldiers as an undifferentiated collective and of military works that avoided real contradictions, and it marked the rise of a new generation of army writers led by Li Cunbao.[17](https://edt.cqvip.com/journal/xjzj/article/571273481) The film's frank treatment of internal army problems, from the attempted back-door transfer to the unfair denial of Jin Kailai's merit citation, is repeatedly cited as the reason its heroes feel human rather than templated, and as a standard of realism that later mainstream war cinema is measured against.[18](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-08-21/detail-ininzyex1647695.d.html)\n\n## References\n\n1. [高山下的花环－电影简介－中国电影名片, mifang.org](https://www.mifang.org/yl/cq/p21.html)\n2. [李存葆和《高山下的花环》, 中国作家网 (2022)](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2022/0805/c404063-32495558.html)\n3. [谢晋诞辰百年丨他是尖锐的，同时也是有节制的, 澎湃新闻 via 新浪 (2023)](https://finance.sina.cn/2023-11-21/detail-imzvizhu8494229.d.html?from=wap)\n4. [《高山下的花环》, 新京报 via 新浪网 (2008)](https://news.sina.com.cn/c/2008-11-10/154216624483.shtml)\n5. [CiNii Books: 高山下的花环 (videocassette, 148 min)](https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BD13107512?codeamparea=23&l=en&linkamp=library-area-filter)\n6. [国内战争片巅峰，应该是《高山下的花环》, 新浪娱乐 (2026)](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-05-03/detail-inhwrxaz0537274.d.html?vt=4)\n7. [徐桑楚的两把杀手锏, 财新周刊 (2011)](https://magazine.caixin.com/2011-09-13/100304645.html)\n8. [《高山下的花环》幕后：李存葆采访7个月, 搜狐 (2021)](https://www.sohu.com/a/448569378_99907920)\n9. [“花环”诞生记, 文艺报 via 中国作家网 (2021)](https://www.chinawriter.com.cn/n1/2021/0701/c404063-32145779.html)\n10. [从《高山下的花环》到《翠湖》, 澎湃新闻 (2026)](https://m.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_32513382)\n11. [20分钟看完1984年《高山下的花环》, YouTube (2023)](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jTa4Bc67QA)\n12. [人民日报 1984年11月19日 第7版：电影《高山下的花环》座谈会](https://cn.govopendata.com/renminribao/1984/11/19/7/)\n13. [教育部人權教育資源網：人權影音推薦《高山下的花環》](https://hre.pro.edu.tw/online_intro/97)\n14. [中国电影年鉴资料（1984–1985年获奖记录）, SSReader](https://www.bnasie.eu/Asset/Source/bnBook_ID-1950_No-01.pdf)\n15. [发行与宣传·发行, 甘肃省地方志 (2017)](https://www.gsdfszw.org.cn/gssz_58/dyl_69/lzs_224/dwsjwhsyz/201707/P020171107639350940026.pdf)\n16. [泪目，这应该是中国战争片的天花板吧, 1905电影网 (2023)](https://www.1905.com/m/news/touch/1648355.shtml)\n17. [浅析20世纪80年代军事文学中军人形象的转型, 戏剧之家 (2020)](https://edt.cqvip.com/journal/xjzj/article/571273481)\n18. [《高山下的花环》完整版深度解析, 新浪娱乐 (2026)](https://ent.sina.cn/2026-08-21/detail-ininzyex1647695.d.html)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › War and historical films (individual works) › War action and adventure › War action films released through 1999 › Released 1963 to 1998*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/wreaths-at-the-foot-of-the-mountain", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/wreaths-at-the-foot-of-the-mountain.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain (高山下的花环)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/wreaths-at-the-foot-of-the-mountain. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain (高山下的花环)](https://www.edgepedia.org/wreaths-at-the-foot-of-the-mountain)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/wreaths-at-the-foot-of-the-mountain](https://www.edgepedia.org/wreaths-at-the-foot-of-the-mountain). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain (高山下的花环)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/wreaths-at-the-foot-of-the-mountain. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "Wreaths at the Foot of the Mountain is Xie Jin's 1984 Shanghai Film Studio war drama adapted from Li Cunbao's novella about the 1979 Sino-Vietnamese War; it won Golden Rooster and Hundred Flowers awards and drew 150 million admissions." }