In his Western films, Wu Tianming focuses on the theme of urban-rural relations and constructs a modern legitimacy foundation of “responsibility above rights”, “collective above individuals” and “the national above the worldly” through three forms of rural narrative: “leaving the hometown”, “staying in the hometown” and “returning to the hometown”. Rural culture becomes the ultimate destination for his understanding of the relationship between tradition and modernity. Wu Tianming’s rural narrative about modern legitimacy in his Western films provides important inspiration for Chinese Western films and even Chinese films on how to promote the transformation of tradition into modernity in the dual dialogue of“history” and “contemporary”, and construct a visual and symbolic system with historical height, philosophical character, and national characteristics.