Pretty safe to say that this is Zhang Yimou's masterpiece, although Raise the Red Lantern will always be my personal favorite. Both Ge You and Gong Li are amazing in this epic film about a family's struggle to live through the Maoist regime. The only word that can describe Gong Li's acting prowess in this film is sublime. This is why we're posting these films- so that viewers so dumbed-down by westernized mediocrity can be exposed to Yimou's practically hidden masterworks that pre-dated the shit he's been pumping out lately. What happened to you, Zhang Yimou? What the hell happened?
Sorry, but this guy pisses me off to no end. I'll get off my soap-box now. Enjoy the film.
From Caryn James at the New York Times:
In the gambling house where Fugui (Ge You) spends his nights, letting his family fortune slip from his grasp, he is treated like a young prince. The setting is China in the prerevolutionary 1940's, and after hours of gambling, Fugui is carried home at dawn through the streets of his small town on the back of a man who deposits him at his extravagant house. Fugui's wife, Jiazhen (Gong Li), begs him to stop gambling, for the sake of their small daughter and the child she is carrying.
Of course, he doesn't, and soon loses the family home to a bounder called Long Er. One of many great comic ironies in "To Live," Zhang Yimou's family melodrama that sweeps through 30 years of Chinese history, is that this misfortune turns out to be a major piece of luck. When the revolution comes, the house is burned by the Communists and the landowning Long Er is executed. There, but for the grace of his gambling, goes Fugui.
"Your family's timber was first-rate," a good Communist tells him, describing how fast the house went up in flames. By then Fugui has developed a sense of survival that is by turns funny and heartbreaking and that expresses the very soul of this tragicomic film. "That wasn't my family's timber," he says. "That was counterrevolutionary timber."
"To Live" is purposefully more sentimental than anything Mr. Zhang has done before. After Fugui has lost the house, he takes over a traveling shadow puppet show. While he and his friend Chungsheng are on the road with their theater, they are captured by the losing Nationalist army. When Fugui returns to his much-changed town, he finds that Jiazhen earns a living by delivering water door to door. An illness has left their daughter, Fengxia, deaf. And their son, Youqing, is a spirited boy who becomes the victim of his father's desperate need to disguise his past as a wealthy man.
This film is also less sumptuously photographed than Mr. Zhang's other works; in the lives of these characters, touches of red on a gray uniform have to pass for glamour. Depicting the characters responding to Mao's changes, "To Live" brings to mind Chen Kaige's "Farewell, My Concubine," though set among poor townspeople rather than against the rich backdrop of the Beijing Opera. In its emphasis on individuals, "To Live" has less in common with Mr. Zhang's earlier, less dramatic films, "Red Sorghum" and "Ju Dou," than with his recent ones, the glorious soap opera "Raise the Red Lantern" and the comic tale of a rebellious woman, "The Story of Qiu Ju." (All of them starring Gong Li.)
But the masterly Mr. Zhang knows he's creating melodrama and exaggerates to profound effect. The family tragedies in "To Live" demonstrate how China's politics scarred individuals who were treated as pawns in Mao's progress, and its sentimentality shows that ideology is no comfort in the face of personal anguish. In two magnificent performances, Gong Li carries the story's emotions and Ge You the weight of history. Gong Li is, as always, a powerful heroine. But Mr. Ge is a revelation, evoking sympathy and pity as a man whose weakness causes him to bend like a reed in the changing winds of Chinese politics and whose strength allows him to endure the consequences.
During the Great Leap Forward in the 1950's (the historical changes are explained clearly in succinct titles through the film), the entire town donates all metal objects to support steel production. Even the family's pans are taken away, and everyone eats at the communal kitchen. That is where the mischievous Youqing pours a huge amount of chili sauce on a big bowl of noodles, then calmly dumps it on the head of a boy who has been taunting his sister. For that, Fugui publicly spanks his son, agreeing that the little boy's gesture was a counterrevolutionary act meant to undermine the communal kitchen.
Irreverent though Mr. Zhang's take on Chinese history is, "To Live" is primarily a story of living with sadness. Fugui's old friend Chungsheng becomes a district leader and accidentally causes a death. "You owe us a life," Jiazhen screams at him, and the line becomes a refrain that resonates through the film.
In the 60's, during the Cultural Revolution, Fugui and Jiazhen hear that their prospective son-in-law, a committed Maoist, is tearing their house apart. They race home only to find him helpfully repairing the roof and painting huge murals of Mao on the walls. Throughout, Mr. Zhang creates an inescapable sense of the tension and fear that informs the characters' daily lives.
The Communist revolution is increasingly blamed for the family's tragedies. When someone dies because the reactionary doctors have been taken away from the hospital, leaving only inept students behind, there is no mistaking the political toughness of this melodrama's message.
This film has created serious problems for Mr. Zhang. The Chinese Government was unhappy that "To Live" was entered in competition at this year's Cannes Film Festival, where Gong Li and Ge You were present and won best acting awards. In the last few weeks, the Government has stopped production on Mr. Zhang's new movie, partly financed with French money, and barred him from working on foreign co-productions.
Technical Information:
Title: 活着/Huózhe/To Live
Year: 1994
Country: China
Director: Zhang Yimou
Source: Retail DVD9
DVD Format: NTSC
Container: .iso + mds
Size: 6.97 GB
Length: 2:12:26
Programs used: ImgBurn
Resolution: 720x480
Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
Video: MPEG2 @ ~6800 kb/s
Frame Rate: 29.97 fps
Audio: 简体中文/Mandarin- Dolby AC3 Stereo at 192 kb/s
Subtitles: English, French, Spanish
Menu: Yes
Video: Untouched
DVD Extras: Theatrical trailer
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