The wooden man’s bride

The twenties, a remote village in North-Western China.Preparations are being made for a traditional arranged marriage. The simple young Kui has the task of carrying the bride. In the desert ‘The Lightning Gang’ suddenly pops up from behind a sand dune by the wedding procession and tries to abduct the pretty young bride. Kui manages to rescue her at first, but the couple are traced. When the gang members threaten to kill Kui, the bride saves his life by going along with the gang voluntarily. After Kui’s return, the bridegroom ides in a tragic accident. Then Kui sets off himself to rescue the bride. The gang leader is so impressed by Kui heroism that he frees the bride.The couple return to their village and find out that the suspicious and strict mother of the bridegroom has organised an absurd wedding-funeral with a wooden doll instead of the dead bridegroom. The young bride has to promise eternal fidelity to the doll and Kui is banished to a soya mill where he has to do hard labour. Nevertheless, the two fall in love; however their happiness elicits vengeance from the community.Director Huang: ‘I wanted to film this story because the Chinese people have basically been telling the same story for hundreds of thousands of years. Why? They have put all their happiness and sorrow, pain and anger, hope and ideals in this story. It also expresses the spirit of rebellion for them.’