The Blue Kite is a Chinese film that was made in the year 1993. Tian Zhuangzhuang directed the film. He went through a great deal of trouble to make this film. The film was immediately banned by the Chinese government and is still banned in China. The film portrays the Communist Party in a harsh light that many deem as simple reality.
 The story line of the movie follows the life of a child, Teitou, as his life takes turns for the worst. The movie reflects that these are just more than circumstantial problems that Teitou faces; they are problems that the government has created for all of the proletarian citizens in China at this time. Teitou loses every member of his family by the end of the movie and ends up as a bitter street urchin who is alone on the streets. The system failed him terribly. The system also failed all of those around him, killing off his father and causing pain and suffering to the other families that live in the same communal area as Teitou.
 The people in this movie look desperate, hungry, and miserable. This is one of the reasons that the government had the film banned the second that it was released. People around the world were exposed to the mistakes made by the Communist Party. The last thing that the Communist Party wanted was a movie that was as radical as The Blue Kite showing in theaters to millions of Chinese people. These people could potentially gather together, after becoming riled up over the situation they all suffered from as well, which is shown in the film, and overthrow the government. We discussed this in lecture for quite a while. The mistakes that the government made in regards to how they ran the country during the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution are a serious threat to the people following them. It is taboo for the people to discuss the mistakes because of the chance that they could be singled out as many were in the movie, but one day, or maybe one movie, it is going to change and the people will have the opportunity to rebel against the government in mass instead of individually.
 Individual rebellions did not work because, as we saw in The Blue Kite, the government would quickly squash anyone that dare spoke out against something or voiced an opinion other than the Maoist one. The perfect example of this is the uncle’s girlfriend, who goes to jail for not wanting to take part and for disagreeing. People follow Mao blindly at this period in time that the movie is reflecting upon. People give up everything they have for the sake of the group. As reflected in the reading, no one dared be the one who attempted to branch away without consequence.
 Contrary to the film Breaking With Old Ideas, The Blue Kite actually portrays what was occurring in China during these harsh times. The Great Leap Forward was a very desperate period of time in Chinese history. Many people died in the attempt to change culture. It is unfortunate for the Chinese people that they are unable to see films that are more historically accurate than Breaking With Old Ideas. Breaking With Old Ideas is a Communist Party film that was designed to help the Chinese people and the world see that the government was good and trying to improve peasants at this time in history. The Blue Kite shows the truth, as we see in the reading, about how many people suffered and died over this time period.