Eternity in Flames (Chinese: 烈火中永生; pinyin: Lièhuǒ Zhōng Yǒngshēng), also known as Red Crag, is a black-and-white 1965 Chinese-language film directed by Shui Hua.

Starring Yu Lan and Zhao Dan, it tells the story of a young woman who leads a band of Communist guerillas after the death of her husband.

[2] Survivors of KMT internment camps, they had previously published several recounts of their experiences in newspapers, expanding details in subsequent iterations based on audience feedback.

[5] The actress Yu Lan read excerpts of Red Crag while hospitalized in 1961, later finding a full edition to finish its story.

[7] Xia proposed using the character of Jiang – who in the second draft had only two scenes[8] – as a parallel to Xu Yunfeng, arguing that her status as a wife and mother would draw the emotional investment of audiences.

[10] As production came to a close in late 1964, Xia Yan was falling out of favour with CCP Chairman Mao Zedong; he was consequently credited using the pseudonym Zhou Gao.

[13] One member of the Publicity Department of the CCP insisted that the title Red Crag be changed, as its departures from the source material – some twenty in number – were deemed unrepresentational.

[18] In his book Chinese Cinema: Culture and Politics since 1949, Paul Clark argues that Eternity in Flames showed the potential of making a "revolutionary film with restrained heroics and less falseness.

[20] An early screening of Eternity in Flames was held for senior CCP members on 27 December 1964,[14] with Jiang Qing – a former actress and one of the wives of Mao Zedong[22] – in attendance.

[8] Eternity in Flames received a wide release in mid-1965,[2] the year after the PLA Air Force's political department had staged an opera adaptation of Red Crag.

[24] In the midst of the Cultural Revolution, Jiang Qing reassessed the film, branding it as going "against Chairman Mao's thought" and distorting "the historical reality by depicting the rural struggles as having been led by the urban sector".

[29] This title is a reference to Red Crag Village, where the CCP had headquartered its southern bureau between 1936 and 1946 and incited peasant revolts against the KMT government.

[30] In her exploration of the construction of womanhood in the People's Republic of China, Wang Zheng writes that films such as Eternity in Flames made mainstream an image of "brave, selfless revolutionary heroines" that remained widespread across generations of Chinese women – particularly urban ones.

[10] According to the sinologist Kirk Denton, the novel and film have become the main sources of information for the average Chinese citizen regarding the Red Crag site and its history.