Red Firecracker, Green Firecracker is set in China prior to the 1911 revolution. Chun Zhi is a beautiful woman who dresses like a man and runs a fireworks business which has been passed down through the generations in her family.

However, her life is changed when an itinerant painter arrives to get her palatial estate ready for the coming New Year festivities. Chun Zhi falls in love with this outsider. The family elders, trying to protect the status quo, have the painter beaten up. They also set up an exorcism outside Chun Zhi's bedchamber.

Director He Ping delivers a vivid portrait of this rigid puritanical society where love is seen as anarchy. The relationship between the "master" and the painter is as wild as the Yellow River and as explosive as the fireworks created by Chun Zhi's factory. This well-told story registers effectively on the senses.