The Wasted Years

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 Bizhou remained in the collective household of the Anliu Brigade at the Lakeside Village, engrossed in writing his novel "Always Like This," while the other Shanghai educated youth were busy attending local events. A sudden downpour brought a tall, lively girl named Du Jianchun to Ke Bizhou—she had stumbled here to seek shelter from the rain. Du Jianchun asked him many questions with confidence, while Ke Bizhou answered them shyly. When they parted, he didn't even ask which brigade she belonged to. Time quickly passed to winter, when forest protection and fire prevention became a major concern. One night, Ke Bizhou took over the fire lookout duty on the mountain for the petite female educated youth Hua Wenwen and unexpectedly met Du Jianchun again, discovering she was from the neighboring Mirror Mountain Brigade, also assigned to guard the forest managed by both brigades. They gathered around a bonfire, talking late into the night, and a strange yet vague feeling emerged between them. From then on, their interactions increased. One time, when Du Jianchun visited Ke Bizhou at Lakeside Village, Su Daocheng, a high-ranking youth living in the same dormitory as Ke Bizhou, maliciously revealed to her that Ke's father was labeled a "historical counter-revolutionary." Du Jianchun's expression changed upon hearing this, leading her to distance herself from Ke Bizhou, deepening his gloom. Misfortunes piled on, as Ke Bizhou was randomly beaten by a group of thugs, and his savings of forty to fifty yuan for the upcoming year were stolen. To make matters worse, during a storm, Ke Bizhou fell from a cliff while saving a plow ox, suffering a severe thigh fracture and being bedridden at the end of the lunar year. The chairman of the brigade's Poor Association, Shao Dashan, took him home, where his daughter, Shao Yurong, carefully cared for his injuries, providing him with a treatment akin to being treated as a "human" for the first time in three years of work in the countryside, which deeply moved him. Shao Yurong's uncle, Shao Siyu, who worked at the county meteorological bureau, also comforted Ke Bizhou, helping him heal his mental wounds and liberating him from his melancholy. In the spring of 1971, Ke Bizhou's proposal to set up a small hydropower station in Lakeside Village was approved at the mass assembly. He learned from the newspaper that raw materials for paper making were scarce, so he suggested cutting down the abundant "August bamboo" on the mountains, selling it to the county's paper mill, and using the proceeds to fund the small hydropower station. The brigade tasked Ke Bizhou with coordinating this in the county town. Now, almost everyone in Lakeside Village recognized Ke Bizhou as a rare good educated youth. In Shao Yurong's emotional world, her pity, sympathy, concern, and familiarity with Ke Bizhou gradually evolved into a deep infatuation. Shao Dashan noticed his daughter's feelings; although he genuinely liked Ke Bizhou, in an era where family background outweighed everything, as the chairman of the Poor Association, he was naturally filled with doubt. He approached Ke Bizhou, seriously warned him not to get distracted by romance and create negative influences, and frankly told him that Yurong was still young and he could not bear to hear gossip about her. Ke Bizhou was shocked before Shao Dashan finished speaking, and he painfully assured Shao Dashan, "I know my own limitations; I will control my behavior." The gentle Shao Yurong could not fathom why Ke Bizhou was intentionally cold towards her; she felt distressed, angered, and even a sense of betrayal. Eventually, unable to contain her feelings, during one encounter, this straightforward girl reprimanded Ke Bizhou, leaving him feeling ashamed. Reluctantly, he revealed the content of his conversation with Shao Dashan and his promises in hopes of gaining Yurong's understanding. However, upon returning home, Shao Yurong quarreled with her father and publicly declared that her heart was given to Ke Bizhou. Just when it seemed nothing could go right, Du Jianchun's fate dramatically changed. Overnight, her father was labeled as a capitalistic "class enemy," followed by derogatory labels such as "black hand of counter-revolution" and "traitor." The county educated youth office and the recruitment office canceled Du Jianchun's admission to university as a "worker-peasant-soldier student," and county security teams conducted a raid on her dorm, destroying all her belongings. Du Jianchun resisted bravely but was knocked unconscious by the team leader, Bai Mapi. The nightmares that once troubled Ke Bizhou now cruelly descended upon Du Jianchun, pushing this positive and confident girl to the brink of spiritual collapse. In her time of crisis, it was once again Shao Yurong who took care of her and submitted evidence of her mistreatment to the county. Bai Mapi was relentless and sought trouble with Du Jianchun again, crossing paths with Shao Yurong on his way. To protect Du Jianchun, Yurong confronted him, and tragically, Bai Mapi struck her on the head with an iron rod, killing her. Ke Bizhou's heart was shattered once more, and he was overwhelmed by despair. By 1973, many educated youth had returned to the city for work. The commune decided to merge the educated youth households of Anliu Brigade and Mirror Mountain Brigade. However, Du Jianchun, merged into Anliu Brigade, did not move into a collective household but was insidiously arranged by the revolutionary committee director Zuo Dingfa into a long-abandoned flour mill. On a stormy night, Zuo Dingfa suddenly barged into Du Jianchun's room attempting to assault her. After a fierce struggle, she managed to drive him away, but by dawn, the entire flour mill was submerged in floodwaters. In despair, Du Jianchun contemplated suicide, but Ke Bizhou arrived just in time to save her from the grasp of death. Overcome with mixed feelings, Du Jianchun re-evaluated her past treatment of Ke Bizhou and recognized that she had inevitably fallen in love with him. However, having just lost Shao Yurong, Ke Bizhou seemed oblivious to this, and the unpredictable political climate worried him—if Du Jianchun's father were to regain power, she might leave him again. He was terrified of being trapped in love once more. By the end of 1976, Du Jianchun's father's wrongful conviction was indeed overturned. In a letter to her father, Du Jianchun publicly revealed her relationship with Ke Bizhou. As expected, her father, a former official, was bewildered as to why his daughter loved a "historical counter-revolutionary," prompting him to write to Shao Dashan, who had become the political secretary of the brigade, to inquire into Ke Bizhou's political behavior. Upon hearing this news, Ke Bizhou was deeply worried. Shortly afterward, Du Jianchun and Ke Bizhou returned to Shanghai together for a visit. At home, they engaged in heated debates over whether she should marry someone of “historical counter-revolutionary” descent with her mother and brother. In the end, the mother had to relent, agreeing to meet Ke Bizhou personally to discuss it further. Du Jianchun's brother, Du Jiansheng, made trouble by preemptively warning Ke Bizhou not to cross the threshold of their home. Faced with so many adversaries, Ke Bizhou felt his dream was becoming less attainable, and days later, he boarded a train back to his rural community alone. Just as the train was about to depart, Du Jianchun dashed onto the platform, leapt onto the train, and tearfully declared to Ke Bizhou: "We will be together forever."