The literal translation of the title of this movie is: The grass that made you forget your sorrow.
This movie made in the early era of Chinese reform has bravely broken into something that was long willfully ignored due to the Cultural Revolution:
The struggles between the communists and the nationalists in the 1930's China was actually between the capitalism and feudalism. Surprisingly, communists were advocating capitalists principles simply because it brought more wealth to the peasantry, the class they came from, while the supporters of the nationalists were usury/landlords who benefited from the traditional feudalism, which nationalists tried to maintain. Due to the Cultural Revolution, this part was willfully ignored in China until the era of the reform, and this movie is one of the early pioneers that revealed the truth.