At the beginning of the 50s, leftist filmmakers had to deal with Mainland’s restriction on importing Hong Kong movies and local oppression on leftist ideology. This film was made amidst such historical turmoil time, relating a story about members of a landlord family and fighting among each other and exploitation on their farmers before the liberation. Yueh let his camera flow rhythmically through different quarters of a big mansion, as he slowly revealed the complex story lines among his characters. The ghastly visual style unmistakably reflected the brutality and ill fate of an outdated world. The political message was amplified when the younglings run towards the revolution base in the rain and the hundredyears- old dead tree being uprooted by wind. Screenwriter Shen Ji was cast out from Hong Kong by the colonial Government in 1952. A cry for class revolution, the movie was written with a clear recognition of the political climate at the time.