Wo zhe yi bei zi (This Life of Mine)

As one of the first films released after the Communists’ victory in 1949, "This Life of Mine" shows how Chinese cinema responded to the new circumstances. In it, director and lead actor Shi Hui depicts four decades of Chinese revolutionary history from the perspective of a Beijing police officer whose sense of duty toward the constantly changing regimes plunges him into severe moral dilemmas: The chronicle spans from the Republican Revolution of 1911 through the progressive May Fourth Movement and the devastation wrought by the corrupt rule of rival military leaders, to the brutal Japanese occupation, the even more corrupt rule of the Nationalists after 1945, and the eventual victory of the Communists in 1949. Shi’s film captivates with its authentic Beijing colloquial language, contrasting noir-style lighting, and astonishingly creative editing. Shi himself was driven to his death in 1957 during Mao’s Anti-Rightist Campaign.