Thunderstorm is a film version of the four-act spoken drama, written by Cao Yu in 1934, then a 23-year-old university student studying English and Western Literature. This play intricately embeds an exploration of fate within a plot exposing the oppressive realities of contemporary society, and its themes reflect the spirit of iconoclasm in the 1920s and 1930s which advocated the liberation of the individual from the patriarchal family and the emancipation of workers from capitalist exploitation. The success of Thunderstorm established the popularity of spoken drama among ordinary urban audiences. Since its premiere on the Chinese professional stage in 1935, it has been revived constantly (except during the Cultural Revolution period), and also adapted into regional musical theatres, Western opera and ballet. The one-hour-fifty-minute film was released in 1984, directed by Sun Daolin, stared by Sun Daolin (Zhou Puyuan), Gu Yongfei (Fanyi), Qin Yi (Lu Ma) and Zhang Yu (Sifeng).