Main Cast: Hao Zheng, Sun Hong-Lei, Zhang Ziyi, Li Bin
Release Year: 2000
Country: CN
Run Time: 89 minutes
MPAA Rating: G
Plot
Following on the heels of director Zhang Yimou's Not One Less (1999), which won the top prize at the 1999 Venice Film Festival, comes this sensitively-wrought portrait of a young woman's unshakable love. The film opens in the present, shot in gritty black and white, as businessman Luo Yusheng (Sun Honglei) returns to his hometown in the rural Hebei province to attend the funeral of his father. When Luo suggests that the coffin should be brought home from the hospital on a tractor, his aging mother Zhao Di (Zhao Yuelin) rebuffs him, insisting that they conform to custom and have it carried home by local men. Later, as Luo recalls his parent's courtship, the film switches to color and travels back in time about 40 years. A young, beautiful Zhao Di (Zhang Ziyi) find herself falling for the village's handsome new teacher Luo Changyu (Zheng Hao). As the males in the village join together to build a school for the burg, Zhao Di helps the other women prepare food, waiting patiently to meet the strapping educator. Just as their romance begins, Luo is suddenly ordered to leave by the Communist authorities. As Luo packs up and leaves the village, Zhao Di races hither and thither carrying his favorite steamed dumplings, hoping to catch him before he departs. Though the odds of reunion seem slim, Zhao Di steadfastly holds vigil for her lover until miraculously, Luo returns under the cover of the night only to be once again ordered to the city where he has been commanded to stay. The pair are forced to wait another two years until they can be together. This film won the prestigious Silver Bear at the 2000 Berlin Film Festival and the World Cinema Audience Award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival; the victories were all the more sweet for the director, as The Road Home was rejected outright from the 1999 Cannes Film Festival, prompting Zhang to angrily withdraw his Not One Less from competition. ~ Jonathan Crow, All Movie Guide
Review
Zhang Yimou's gorgeously photographed, richly emotional ode to family is among the most memorable films of his varied career, managing to tell its conventional tale with unconventional wisdom and no shortage of true empathy and heart. Broken up beautifully in stark black-and-white for the modern scenes and a lush colorization in flashback, the movie isn't terribly surprising in its execution, but Yimou's expert realization of the themes the film explores more than compensates. Zhang Ziyi, who made such an indelible impression in 2000's Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon is even more luminous here, in a performance based more on instinct than words, and her beauty is even more captivating, not unlike the starlets of old Hollywood. The film seems rooted in old-fashioned romantic splendor (also not unlike old Hollywood), skillfully blending Eastern idealism and Western ambition into one moving, deeply admirable achievement. It's easy to see why the film took home the Audience Award for world cinema at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival. ~ Jason Clark, All Movie Guide
The Road Home (simplified Chinese: 我的父亲母亲; traditional Chinese: 我的父親母親; pinyin: wǒde fùqīn mǔqīn; literally "My Father and Mother") is a 1999 Chinese film directed by the Zhang Yimou. It also marked the cinematic debut of the Chinese actress Zhang Ziyi. The Road Home was written by author Bao Shi, who adapted the screenplay from his novel, Remembrance.[1]
The film was shot immediately after Zhang's previous film, Not One Less, and was released to strong reviews in China in fall 1999.[1]
The Road Home is the story of a country girl (Zhang Ziyi) and a young teacher falling in love during the 1958 Anti-Rightist Movement and the teacher's death many years later that brings their son back from the big city for the funeral.
The film begins in black and white in present day China when the son returns to his village from the city upon hearing of his father's death. His mother, Zhao Di, insists upon following the tradition of carrying the coffin back to their remote village by foot so that her husband's spirit will remember its way home. As the narrator, the son recounts the story of his parents' courtship, so famous that it has gained the status of a legend in the village. It is here the bleak black and white turns into vivid colors as the story shifts to the past.
His father came to the village as the teacher. Immediately, Zhao Di (Zhang Ziyi) became infatuated with him and he with her. Thus began a courtship which consisted mostly of the exchange of looks and glances between the two. Unfortunately, the courtship was interrupted when the teacher was summoned by the government, probably because he was deemed as a "Rightist" by the new communist government. Zhao Di lost her heart and fell gravely ill, so ill that the villagers thought she would die. However, upon hearing the news, the teacher was able to sneak back to the village and Zhao Di, in tears, welcomed the sight of her beloved. Still, their love would not be consummated for a few additional years as the teacher was kept away from the village as punishment for having left his assignment in the city without permission.
Returning to the present day, and black and white, the son realizes how important this ritual of carrying the coffin back to village is to his mother, Zhao Di, and he agrees to make all necessary arrangements to fulfill her wish. He is told by the mayor of the village that it might be difficult to find enough porters to carry the father home, as there are few young able men left in the village. The mayor and the son reach an agreement on the price to be paid to the porters. Upon setting out on the way home, more than 100 people show up to help carry home the casket of the man who was their teacher through various generations in the village. Others who would have come to help were unable to do so because of the heavy snowstorm. The mayor returns the money to the son, as no one will accept payment for doing what they consider to be an honour rather than a task.
On the morning of the day the son leaves to return to his job in the city, he fulfills his father's dream and teaches a class in the old schoolhouse that was central to his parents having fallen in love.
Main cast
Zhang Ziyi - Zhao Di as a young woman, the film's protagonist
Zheng Hao - Luo Changyu, a young teacher sent from the city, Zhao Di's husband and the narrator's father
Zhao Yulian - Zhao Di as an old woman
Sun Honglei - Luo Yusheng, Zhao Di and Luo Changyu's grown son and the film's narrator, he returns to his home village in order to bury his father
Li Bin - Grandmother, Zhao Di's elderly grandmother
Reception
The film won two prizes at the 2000 Berlin International Film Festival: the Jury Grand Prix (second best film) and Prize of the Ecumenical Jury.[2] The film received positive reviews, achieving a score of 88% on the film website Rotten Tomatoes. Praises especially went to the film's visual style[3] and actress Zhang Ziyi's performance, which is her cinematic debut.[4][5][6]
