The Village by the Great River

The story takes place in the rural countryside of Northeast China under Japanese and puppet regime rule.

The farmer Wang Yongzhen has a young and beautiful wife, Wu Hong, who catches the eye of the local bully Han Fugui. To take her for himself, Han frames Wang Yongzhen for killing a Japanese soldier. Wang is sent to the provincial military police headquarters to be executed, but escapes by leaping from the train on the way there. Swearing to avenge himself, he forms a band of outlaws and takes to the mountains. While fleeing, Wu Hong ends up in the home of another rich landowner, where she suffers abuse and humiliation as a wet nurse and nearly gets sold to a brothel. After escaping that den, she joins the Eighth Route Army and begins a new life.