To Live
I saw To Live by Zhang Yimou tonight.
Unlike Zhang Yimou's more recent, and more action based arty films, this one is different. Brilliantly told. Honest. Raw. Starking performances. And personally, with incidences that cut close to home.
The story is told during China's cultural revolution. A family. And the effects.
After seeing a film like that, it was hard not to recount the stories of my own cultural history. Of my grandmother. My father. My visit to Shanghai back in 2002, and the stories of how China's political history shaped the lives of my wider family.
The home setting was particularly interesting to note. It was excatly how I remembered it, having visited the village, and the house that sheltered three generations of my family, during my brief, but intense visit in Shanghai.
There's more to say, but it's late.
It is a film worth seeing.
I'm currently awaiting Narnia, and Memoirs of a Geisha. Both books are great. I can't wait to see the screen adaptations!
3 comments:
I saw that movie for a uni class of mine called "Chinese Cinema" :)
Zhang Yimou is great.
Cool :)
What did you have to do for the class?
We watched a movie every week on the big data projector screen :)
I think we watched about 4 or 5 of his films. Or maybe 3? Gong Li was in a few of them.
Then we had a write an essay in the end. I just re-hashed everything the lecturer said and got a very good mark :)
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