Life is often likened to a long journey in which people have to make decisions when tough situation confronting them. On July 26, 1976, people in Tangshan had to decide which way to run from collapsing buildings, falling rubbles and widening clefts. It was a life-and-death choice for every individual, and a much tougher one for a just-widowed mother who was urged to make up her mind: rescuing only one of her fraternal twins, the boy or the girl?

In a pretty conventional vehicle, the film not only depicts directly the “Aftershock”(also the English title) for the family, but also indirectly for the Mainland China (the Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 shortly after Mao’s death on September). There are no special visual-audio effects like 3D or other stunts; but it’s really a tearjerker, full of pathos. I don’t know much about literature or drama, but I think the film has a catharsis effect that could somewhat purge the trivial discontent from our mind when we leave the theater.

The film is said to have been a smash in the Mainland with record-breaking box office, but not so here in Taiwan. I wonder why.