Wasting Time

This film (drama)Also known as蹉跎岁月，is aMainland ChinaProducerbeauty live，At1982Released in year 。The dialogue language isMandarin Chinese，Current Douban rating8.1(For reference only)。

On a summer day in 1970, only Ke Bizhous was absorbed in writing his novel "Every Day is Like This" in the collective household of the Anliu Brigade at Lake Side, while all the other Shanghai educated youth had gone to the market. Suddenly, a torrential downpour brought a tall, lively girl named Du Jianchun to Ke Bizhous, who had come here by chance to seek shelter from the rain. Du Jianchun asked this and that with poise, while Ke Bizhous answered her with some constraint. When they parted, he didn’t even ask which brigade she was from. As winter arrived, forest preservation and fire prevention became a significant task. One night, Ke Bizhous stood watch at a fire lookout station on the mountain for the petite female educated youth Hua Wenwen from the collective household and unexpectedly encountered Du Jianchun, who was stationed nearby to oversee the forest shared by two brigades. Ke Bizhous and Du Jianchun gathered around a campfire and talked all night long, a strange and vague emotion blossoming between them. Subsequently, their interactions increased. Once, when Du Jianchun visited Ke Bizhous at Lake Side, Su Daocheng, the son of a high-ranking family who shared a dorm with Ke Bizhous, deliberately revealed that Ke Bizhous's father was labeled a "historical counter-revolutionary." As Du Jianchun came from a military family, she was outraged and distanced herself from Ke Bizhous, plunging him into deep distress. Disasters did not come alone; Ke Bizhous was suddenly beaten by a group of thugs, and the forty to fifty yuan he had prepared for the coming year's expenses was also stolen. To make matters worse, during a storm not long after, Ke Bizhous fell from a cliff while trying to save a plow ox, suffering a severe thigh fracture, confining him to bed at the end of the lunar year. Shao Dashan, the chairman of the brigade's poverty alleviation association, took Ke Bizhous into his home, where his daughter, Shao Yurong, took care of his injuries with great attention, allowing Ke Bizhous to experience “human” treatment for the first time after three years in the countryside, which deeply moved him. Shao Yuzhong, Shao Yurong's uncle who worked at the county meteorological bureau, also comforted Ke Bizhous, helping him heal his emotional scars and liberate him from his gloomy state. In the spring of 1971, Ke Bizhous' proposal to set up a small hydroelectric station at Lake Side was approved at a public meeting. Learning from the newspaper that raw materials for papermaking were currently scarce, he suggested timely harvesting the abundant "August bamboo" on the mountains, selling it to the county paper mill, and using the proceeds to establish the small hydroelectric station. The brigade assigned Ke Bizhous to contact the county for this matter. Soon, almost everyone in the Lake Side collective recognized Ke Bizhous as a rare and good educated youth. In Shao Yurong's emotional world, sympathy, concern, and familiarity with Ke Bizhous gradually turned into an inescapable first love. Shao Dashan noticed his daughter's feelings. Although he liked Ke Bizhous from the bottom of his heart, in an era where family background weighed more than everything else and determined everything, he, as the chairman of the poverty alleviation association, naturally had his fears. He met with Ke Bizhous and solemnly pointed out that he should not be distracted by romance, as it could create bad influence, while also frankly informing him that Yurun was still young and he could not stand others talking behind their backs. Before Shao Dashan finished, Ke Bizhous was already shocked and pale; he painfully assured Shao Dashan, "I am self-aware, and I will regulate my behavior." Tender-hearted Shao Yurong couldn’t guess why Ke Bizhous intentionally kept her at a distance; she felt sorrowful and angry, even feeling deceived. Finally, she couldn’t hold back any longer; during one encounter, this straightforward girl scolded Ke Bizhous, making him feel ashamed. Helplessly, he had to tell her the content of his talk with Shao Dashan and his promises in order to seek Yurun’s understanding. However, after Shao Yurong returned home, she had a fierce argument with her father and publicly declared that her heart belonged to Ke Bizhous. Suddenly, the fate of Du Jianchun, who had a strong family background, dramatically changed as well. Overnight, her father was labeled as a "capitalist roader" who slipped through the net, soon being branded with tags such as "black gangster of counter-offensive and retribution," "restoration enthusiast," and "traitor." The county educated youth office and recruitment office revoked Du Jianchun's admission qualification to college as a "worker-peasant-soldier student," and the county's people's dictatorship team raided her dormitory, smashing all her belongings. Du Jianchun fought back, but was knocked unconscious by a baton from the dictatorship team's leader. The nightmares that once haunted Ke Bizhous now mercilessly descended upon Du Jianchun, pushing this optimistic and confident girl to the brink of mental collapse. In her time of need, it was again Shao Yurong who took care of her and wrote evidence of her beating, which she sent to the county. Bai Mapi, the dictatorship team leader, was not willing to let things go, and came looking for Du Jianchun again, running into Shao Yurong on the way. Yurun tried to protect Du Jianchun and fought fiercely with Bai Mapi, who brutally struck her on the head with a baton, resulting in her tragic death. Ke Bizhous' heart was once again severely damaged, driving him into despair. By 1973, many educated youths had returned to the city due to recruitment, and the commune decided to merge the educated youth households of Anliu Brigade and Jingzi Mountain Brigade into one. However, Du Jianchun, who was merged into Anliu Brigade, did not move into the collective household but was deliberately placed in a disused flour mill by the chairman of the revolutionary committee, Zuo Dingfa. One stormy night, Zuo Dingfa suddenly stormed into Du Jianchun's bed intending to commit sexual assault. Du Jianchun fought back with all her strength and managed to drive away this two-faced man, but before dawn, the entire flour mill was submerged in floodwaters. Desperate, Du Jianchun prepared to take her own life, but Ke Bizhous arrived just in time and saved her from the brink of death. Overwhelmed with emotions, Du Jianchun reevaluated her past hurtful actions toward Ke Bizhous and found that she had inevitably fallen in love with him. Meanwhile, Ke Bizhous, who had just lost Shao Yurong, seemed unconcerned with all this. Additionally, the unpredictable political climate made him worry: if Du Jianchun’s father made a comeback, Du Jianchun might leave him again. He was genuinely afraid of falling back into the snare of emotions. At the end of 1976, Du Jianchun’s father’s unjust case was indeed redressed. In a letter to her father, Du Jianchun publicly disclosed her relationship with Ke Bizhous. As expected, the old cadre could not understand why his daughter would fall in love with a descendant of a "historical counter-revolutionary." He thus wrote to Shao Dashan, who had become the Party branch secretary of the brigade, asking about Ke Bizhous' political behavior. Upon hearing this news, Ke Bizhous was deeply worried. Shortly after, Du Jianchun and Ke Bizhous returned to Shanghai together for a visit. At home, Du Jianchun had a fierce debate with her mother and brother over whether she should marry the descendant of a "historical counter-revolutionary." Ultimately, her mother had to compromise, agreeing to meet Ke Bizhous first. Du Jianchun's brother, Du Jiansheng, obstructed them by finding Ke Bizhous first and warning him not to step into the Du family door. Faced with so many adversaries, Ke Bizhous felt his dreams were difficult to realize; a few days later, he boarded the train back to Qian alone. Just as the train was about to depart, Du Jianchun rushed onto the platform and jumped onto the train. With tears in her eyes, she affectionately declared to Ke Bizhous, "We will always be together."