阿q正傳

In early republican times, there was a very obscure village - Muzhuang. There was an unknown man who came from there and nobody knew where he was going. Only Ah Mao knew that his name was Ah Q, so he called him that. Ah Q put his hair in a bun, smoked a long cigarette, and sat proudly at the village entrance, watching the passersby. He was best at the "spiritual victory method", where he claimed to have won even though he had lost, causing a series of jokes. Ah Q asked around the village and learned that Master Zhao's son had become a scholar. Ah Q looked down on this and returned to his seat to drink. Other onlookers who saw his expression walked up to him, and Ah Q proudly claimed that he was the same age as Zhao's grandfather. They listened to him respectfully, but with some suspicion. The local constable demanded that each household pay two hundred yuan to congratulate Master Zhao, but everyone rejected the proposal......

A casual laborer in a small town is subjected to daily defeats and brutalities but somehow manages to achieve a spiritual sense of triumph.

Based on the 1921 novella of the same name by one of China's most well-known modern writers, Lu Xun (Lu Hsun), the True Story of Ah Q is set during the 1911 revolution. Ah Q is a lowly peasant who wants to rise above his class, or at least get out of his grinding poverty. At first he thinks the way to do it is by marrying into a better station in life; later, he joins the revolution as he feels that is the only way he and others like him can transcend poverty. In this film version of Lu Xun's story, the character of Ah Q might benefit from a more rounded humanity to make him appealing to those not familiar with the harsh environment in China before the 1911 revolution.