哈蒙德（理查德?阿滕伯勒 Richard Attenborough 饰）立志要建立一个非同寻常的公园：恐龙将是这个公园的主角。他把众多科学家收归旗下，利用琥珀里面困住的远古蚊子体内的血液，提取出恐龙的基因信息，利用这些信息培育繁殖恐龙。结果如愿以偿，他把怒布拉岛建立成了一个恐龙公园，坚信可以从中赚取大钱。然而，科学家们则忧心忡忡。不幸的事情果然发生了。虽然公园有电脑系统管理，但却因为被员工破坏而造成了无法挽救的失控：所有的恐龙逃出了控制区，人们纷纷逃窜却逃不过恐龙的魔爪。恐龙自相残杀，人们亦死难无数，最后幸存者寥寥，只得四人逃出生天。怒布拉岛上空弥漫着恐怖的气息。

1949年初，蒋家王朝未路途穷，黄浦江上停泊的“鼓浪”号军舰也和时局一样，不知何去何从。敌舰长（刘琼 饰）见大势己去，命令开船逃走，舰上一些有正义感的水兵非常愤懑。水兵陈春官（赵丹 饰）向大伙说起解放军官兵团结友爱的故事，勾起大家摆脱眼前困境的向往，船到台湾后，所见所闻更是令人痛恨，美国鬼子肆意欺侮中国人，有一天在夜总会，春官和窦二鹏（崔嵬 饰）亲眼目睹美国佬调戏侍女温梦媛（王丹凤 饰）。愤怒的春官和二鹏上前将美国兵击倒，温梦媛也因此失去工作。出路在哪里？经过陈春官等人的秘密串联，大伙决定弃暗投明，驾舰起义。一石激起千层浪，舰上的反动军官岂能袖手旁观，立刻组织人员镇压，他不知大部分水手都已集结在陈春官麾下......

At the age of eight, the now 25-year-old director caused an incident, which has remained traumatic as he became older. Although it seemed just a trivial matter, something one might expect from children, he obstinately questions his family, friends and teachers about what happened at that time. Worrying over the thoughts of dishonor he saw in his family’s eyes then, he has fostered a self-hatred over the years. As if reconstructing the past with his camera, he attempts to free himself of this self-hatred, shedding tears for himself at times and opening his own wounds, then healing them. What he has discovered through filmmaking was his once sealed “self.” The question now is, where to go from here?

根据余华同名小说改编。富少福贵（葛优）嗜赌成性，妻子家珍（巩俐）屡劝无果后带着女儿凤霞离开了他，当夜，福贵输光所有家产气死父亲，被迫靠变卖母亲首饰租间破屋过活。一年后，家珍手拉凤霞怀抱刚出世的儿子有庆回到家中，福贵痛改前非，开始靠演皮影戏过起安份守己的日子。但好景不常，内战时期，福贵被国民党抓去当劳工，一番辗转终回到家乡与一家人团圆后，凤霞因病变成哑巴，而在后来的大跃进运动和文化大革命中，他虽获某些小福，逆境却也一直与他如影相随。