IMDb plot summary: After Fugui and Jiazhen lose their personal fortunes, they raise a family and survive difficult cultural changes during 1940s to 1970s China.
Directed by Yimou Zhang. Starring Yuo Ge, Li gong, Ben Niu, and Wu Jiang.
This is one of those films that successfully showcases the personal side of big historical events. Enormous shifts in the culture are happening, but the movie stays narrowed in on how this family in particular is making it work. We see the father's work as an entertainer sometimes valued greatly and sometimes not at all. We see people in charge willing to bend the rules to make sure the people they love are taken care of. It's a moving story that somehow never feels melodramatic even when dramatic things happen, and I think that's partly due to the pragmatic responses from the characters. They mourn, they celebrate, but at the end of the day they go back to living their lives the way they always have. I'm having trouble putting into words all that I liked about this movie, and I think that's because it's one of those films that sits in my heart more than in my head, and I'm sure the more it sits there the more my thoughts on it will gel.
How it entered my Flickchart:
To Live > One, Two, Three
To Live < The Black Cat
To Live > Ramona and Beezus
To Live > Death by Hanging
To Live > Gandhi
To Live < The Hill
To Live > Children of a Lesser God
To Live < 42 Up
To Live > Borat
To Live < The Cranes Are Flying
To Live < Call Me Madam
To Live < Song of the Sea
Final spot: #901 out of 3323, or 73%.
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