| Grain in Ear | |
| Director: | Zhang Lu |
| Producer: | Choi Do-yeong |
| Starring: | Liu Lianji Jin Bo Zhu Guangxuan Wang Tonghui |
| Editing: | Kim Sun-min |
| Cinematography: | Liu Yonghong |
| Runtime: | 109 minutes |
| Country: | China South Korea |
| Language: | Mandarin Korean |
Grain in Ear (;) is a 2005 Chinese film written and directed by Korean Chinese filmmaker Zhang Lu.[1] [2] The title refers to the solar term in the traditional calendars of China and Korea.[3]
Cui Shun-ji is a Chinese woman of Korean ancestry. A single mother bringing up a young son, she lives away from her hometown, and makes a living by selling kimchi. In the course of living her life, she meets three men who betray her. When her son dies in an accident, she decides to take revenge.
Grain in Ear was filmed in a small industrial town, an area 45 minutes' drive away from Beijing, yet just on the edge of farmland."[4]
Grain in Ear examines the interplay of sex, economics, social class and race in a newly industrialized Chinese provincial backwater. Korean Chinese are one of the recognized ethnic minorities in China, comprising about 2.7 million citizens. Korean Chinese are spread throughout the country, and their group situation is consequently invisible to other Chinese, though many have difficulties integrating into society. Televised folklore celebrations and popular Korean foods such as the world-famous kimchi serve as one of the few common reminders of Korean Chinese culture for other Chinese. Zhang, in his brutal focus on the challenges of assimilation for his native ethnic group, explains that "his film is essentially anti-terrorist. Not at all in the way of Bush's political agenda, but on the scale of everyday life, how we as humans terrorize those around us."[4]