Because of this injustice, Qiu Ju sets forth to extract an explanation from Wang Shatang, one in which the village head is unwilling to supply. Qiu Ju becomes determined to 'right' the 'wrong' and establishes contact with officials from the nearest small town. As the case is mediated and re-mediated (at her insistence) by the government bureaucracy, it is never resolved to Qiu Ju's satisfaction. She is essentially seeking a simple apology and the dispute continues to a potentially devastating climax.

Continuing with his sub-themes of female perseverance, diligence and irrepressible patience (as seen in his other films, "The Road Home" and "Not One Less"), Zhang again uses long distance pedestrian travel as the vehicle of expression. In their efforts to seek justice, Qiu Ju, with her blotted belly, and dutiful sister-in-law Meizi make their way to the larger town numerous times as well as the province's bustling capital city. Here Zhang makes wonderful use of the crowds of people scurrying to their daily activities. This helps add to the realistic nature of the film.

As bold and determined as the embodiment of Mother Earth that she obviously represents, Qiu Ju remains unforgiving, until Wang Shantang is reprieved in her eyes for his part in the eventual birth of their son. Qiu Ju was hemorrhaging badly and required assistance into town that Shantang organized. The vendetta appeared to have subsided as she personally invites him to the child's "moon yeut" ceremony, one month after birth. 

Roger Ebert notes in his review, "...we absorb more information about the lives of ordinary people in everyday China than in any other film I've seen...". I certainly agree with this sentiment as I also found that this expose of the lives of common people of rural China quite illuminating. This film seems to have been ambitiously striving for quite a handful... and achieves all its goals with proud, unpretentious glory. Both having a neo-realism feel, both showing the more detailed levels of the cultural justice system at the grass-roots level and both are expressive in both subtle complexity and simplistic mannerisms.  I give it out of .