sitenoise
This may be Zhang Jingchu's best and most challenging role yet, and it comes from very early in her career. When she is given a starring role (Night and Fog, Red River) she really shines, seeming less remarkable when she plays a supporting role (Overheard, Protégé, Beast Stalker). Here she plays a character who goes from a teenager to old age over the course of a film that spans more than four decades. These kinds of roles come along every so often for actors and actresses, their success relying quite a bit on makeup—which in this case is pretty good for such a low budget film—but the challenge, one which Zhang seems to rise to, is also to convince us that the character has grown and changed along with the events of the film.Zhang is probably weakest as a teenager, not because she doesn't look the part or do it well, it's more like she is so good it's a little annoying. She's going at 150 miles an hour and is just a little too charming. We then see her as: a young woman coming to terms with her sexuality amidst a conservative society; a dutiful wife in an arranged marriage; a middle-aged woman coming to grips with the changes in her marriage and society; and finally an older woman dealing with tragedy and a society that seems to have fully left her behind. She is better and more convincing with each progression.Of course it helps when playing this kind of role if the film is good, and this one is beautiful. Filmed in the Yunnan Province of China, the cinematography is breathtaking, the story a poignant one. The film begins in the mid 1960s when the spirit of the Communist Revolution was still high and the excesses of the Cultural Revolution hadn't kicked in. Zhang plays bus ticket girl, Li Chunfen. The bus driver, played wonderfully by comedian exploring serious film roles Wei Fan, though much older than Li, has a crush on her (like almost everybody else). Li's affection, however, is for a frequent passenger, Dr. Liu, who's been transferred to Yunnan because his family was rich and he's a bit of an intellectual, qualities that are increasingly suspect as the Cultural Revolution kicks in. The doctor has been sent to a hard labor camp and when Li sneaks out to meet him one night and is caught, things change dramatically for her. She is forced into an arranged marriage with the bus driver who uses his clout with the local party leaders to help her avoid a fate worse than the surface level crime of losing face and bringing shame upon herself.I don't want to give a complete play by play of the storyline, suffice to say The Road is not only a personal journey and a love story, a really touching one, it turns out. It's also an educational story for those of us unfamiliar, as a portrait of changing times in China, lovingly told. The "Old Days" are seen as both good and bad, depending on your place in society or point of view, but most noteworthy is how both sides are presented without judgement. It's a tone poem, an ode, to the complexity that is recent Chinese history. The film takes us from a time when a sense of community and shared values were alive, through the violence and upheaval of the Cultural Revolution, and into modern times where some celebrate the loosening of a moral structure and others remember it fondly. And it does it without any political agenda. It's beautiful. Bravo.
jiaoniang
Yeah, it was about "old" time, where around 1960s. That was about 50 years ago. As I watched the movie, I can understand the story yet hard to imagine to have real meaning to younger generations.I was caught at the tail of the "cultural revolution", which gave me certain impression yet not enough to fought and live like the old guys.There were good about old days: people are poorer only in material not in spiritual. When a marriage is made, even out of misunderstanding initially, life lives on for a long long time. It is about loyalty and about love.The main character, the ticket conductor girl then a driver herself, caught in the end two realms, one seemingly sweet love with the lover going to America, one ordinary yet bitter love which cost her whole live to struggle with.The hardest part was the title, the road was not led to an obvious beautiful road as the title has suggested. Maybe in her heart?
cassiel-12
The Road(Fang Xiang Zhi Lu)explores human emotions in the midst of a shaping political turmoil.A love story from a country that is struggling for its identity between tradition and modernity: Ticket girl Li Chunfang (played by Zhang Jingchu) works on a bus line during the Cultural Revolution. Much older Lao Cui (played by Wei Fan), widowed and celebrated Bus conductor (Mao shook his hands once), is secretly in love with her. She, instead, falls for an intellectual, Dr. Liu, a doctor from Shanghai she meets on the bus. But this kind of love is forbidden and one day they get caught and he is sent to a labor camp. They shall never meet again. But Li never forgets her love, even though she eventually marries much older bus driver Cui. She also takes care of him after he has a fatal accident. But what about the doctor from Shanghai who is trying to get in contact with her again? Too late she finds out why her husband went out on that night before the accident… This is a poetic movie about love in the turmoil of the Cultural Revolution. It is about inner strength, loyalty and the tragedy of life. And it is a film about the passing of time: Li's old bus finally awaits disposal at the museum, candles turn into neon lights, old sand roads into highways… The Road is a strong film that spans around five decades and manages to reflect the changes in the Chinese political times represented in the lives of the main characters. An epic movie, beautifully shot and with excellent actors that will touch you for quite some time!
