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China, 1950: A delegation of the Communist party led by director Jiang
comes to the rural village Meng Long Sha to above everything else spread
the word - much to the dismay of the official ruling the town feudally,
rich rice trader Bukong. Initially, Bukong just forbids his subjects to
have any contact with the Commies, and makes up some horror stories about
them just to make sure the villagers keep in line. This works at first,
and the Commie delegates are already on the verge of giving up - when they
find a sick old man, nurse him back to health, and gain his and his
family's trust. The news that the Communists are actually good guys
travels fast, and now Bukong is already on the verge of giving up, but his
scheming daughter Dao Ling and his hot-headed but not especially clever
son Paga take matters into their own hands, set a villager's house on fire
and blame it on director Jiang and his men. This backfires though when the
Communist delegates more than heroically save some people out of the
burning people. And when director Jiang later frees a man who was
innocently incarcerated by Kaga and opens a rice market for everybody that
is immune to price hikes, he has won the locals over. Bukong, Dao Lin
and Paga start to fear for their business and status, so they try to
sabotage the Communist rice market with all means possible, even if that
means blowing up a bridge cutting off the rice supply or transporting all
the rice out of Meng Long Sha to create an artificial famine - but
whatever the trio does, it always backfires, because Communism, it seems,
has an answer to everything. In the end, Dao Ling and Paga are brought to
justice, while Bukong, who has long grown tired of all the scheming,
agrees to become part of the Communist movement. I think my
synopsis already makes it obvious: This movie is Chinese Communist
propaganda, and the frequent mention about chairman Mao in the film leaves
no doubt about that. As propaganda, The Area of Meng Long Sha is of
course anything but a great film, and it's as blunt (and slightly
uninventive) in its directorial effort as it is in its message. On the
other hand though, it at least keeps things moving at a steady pace and
avoids becoming too preachy, which at least makes this a somewhat
entertaining historical document - if anything but a great movie.
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