China's most famous director Zhang Yimou premiered his latest movie "Under the Hawthorn Tree" on Sunday in Beijing.

The picture steers away from Zhang's trademark experimentation with bright colors, instead focusing on classic, simple story-telling.

Zhang's trademark preoccupation with dazzling colors and choreography was put aside to tell this story. And to do so, he chose two relatively unknown actors, Zhou Dongyu and Dou Xiao for this tale of the simplicity of love in a complex time.

The film follows Jingqiu, a young woman whose family has been under close scrutiny since her father was labeled a rightist, and Laosan, a young man with a promising future from a well-to-do family.

They fall in love when Jingqiu is undergoing re-education in the countryside.