Onlinewsma Absolutely Brilliant!

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Derry Herrera Not sure how, but this is easily one of the best movies all summer. Multiple levels of funny, never takes itself seriously, super colorful, and creative.

Justina The film never slows down or bores, plunging from one harrowing sequence to the next.

Sean Manion As an American viewer with no experience with China outside of a classroom, book, or film, I was unsure how well I would be able to grasp the intensely emotional personal stories of "To Live", considering their intersection with the political developments which envelop the film's characters and the events which shape their lives. The Chinese Revolution in 1949 and the subsequent regime of Mao Tse Tung, including Mao's Cultural Revolution, are formative events for modern China. Together with the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution is considered part of the great disaster that was Mao's efforts to consolidate power and spread socialism following the Revolution. In front of this backdrop, we witness the lives of Fu Gui and his wife, Jia Zhen, as well as their family and friends. Although the 1994 film is not an overt criticism of Mao's regime (to do so would be politically unwise for the filmmakers), the effects of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution have devastating effects on Fu Gui's family. Fu Gui and his family, as a whole, makes huge sacrifices (which the viewer will have to see for him/herself). The purges and political upheaval of the Cultural Revolution effect Fu Gui, his family, and their friends and neighbors, and an uprising of young against old, medical students against their doctors (symbolic of many student rebellions at this time) cause huge stirs and risks. The risky, paranoid, challenging, and life-changing effects of Mao Tse Tung's regime are well-captured in this film, and Westerners would certainly benefit from this perspective, which captures not only the bad, but the good or inoffensive qualities of Chinese life at this time. Not only that, but the character of Fu Gui might inspire any viewer (not to emulate him, but to avoid his mistakes).

chaos-rampant I saw this together with Red Lantern and viscerally knew which one I preferred right away. Having given it a few days to sit now, I see that Red Lantern has grown even more in my estimation while this has almost completely faded from view.Lantern was precisely contained within narrative walls, it abstracted life by placing us in the midst of turning cycles of life and wove cloths out of that turning in the form of rituals that marked passage; color, sound, weather, architecture. It was akin to a Buddhist mandala to me, a cosmic picture directing me to find my own place in the center of things, choose repose over madness.Zhang by contrast here wanders unconstrained, under the auspice of history, aiming for a full chronicle of sorts of Chinese life as a family moves through the decades. The stage backdrop changes frequently; Civil war, Great Leap, Cultural Revolution.We do still have the turning of cycles and it does create a (cosmic) picture; a life of comfort squandered by the man's ignorance who loses it all, to one of hardship and quiet abiding. But eventually it doesn't direct towards a center that will illuminate the turn as something more than the ramblings of history.And it's simply not a very enviable position to want to be the chronicler of history like Zhang is trying to here, it reminds me of how Kusturica stifled himself in similar endeavors. It means our reference point always has to be an externally agreed version of reality and we have to be chained to that sweep.You can see him try to root himself in something more essential - the husband becomes a puppeteer putting on shadow plays for the people, life as the canvas where these evanescent shadow plays are enacted, now losing a fortune, now gaining back your family, so that we could see it from the distance of transient flickers of drama. Civil war is introduced as someone hacking down the screen, revealing war as another play that demands its actors assume their place.But this is forgotten in lieu of stopping at various points of history so that it ends up being more the Oscar winning type than history parting to reveal myriad reflections like Andrei Rublev. Had it come out from the West, I'm sure it would have won a few and the wonderful Gong Li her first. The best I got out of it eventually was the sense of a man and woman trying to make their way together as the skies shift and the stage quakes by the ignorance of unseen puppet masters enacting their little plays. The Great Leap castigated as a wall collapsing on a little boy, because the man who crashed his car and the boy were both overworked and needed sleep.Zhang took care to color history within certain lines so that we veer close to the monumental failures of the era but never quite see the full brunt of the horror, famine or mass persecution, only bits of abuse in passing. It was still banned by Party hacks anxious to control the play.

schwabbeldiwauwau "This piece of art is an epic family drama." If i read reviews like this, i usually think of over-the-top artsy movies with weird acting, unrealistic dialogs and long shots at clocks or stones that no person in his right mind, who is not a complete movie buff would voluntarily sit through. To all you "normal" people, who are afraid of just this: This is not one of those movies. It's no popcorn cinema, but it's still highly entertaining in its own way. The story is gripping, the acting is nothing short of marvelous (Ge You and Gong Li deserve every prize there is for their performances) and the dialogs are simply ...real. It makes you laugh out loud and it makes you cry (there'll be more crying than laughing going on, though) To me, it's a perfect movie, that might just change your perspective on life. However, you will be able to enjoy this masterpiece more thoroughly, if you get yourself acquainted with Chinese history from the 1930s to the 1970s, and while you're at it try to dive into Chinese culture itself real quick as well ^_^ Trust me, you will be able to enjoy this movie much more, if you know more than "well, the commies took over in '49 and then there was this cultural revolution, i guess". If you don't have all that background information, you'll probably still think of it as a great movie, but you're going to miss some of the subtle social commentary and will not recognize the importance of some of the plot devices. So you might want to check out wikipedia or a history book beforehand; or maybe even the novel itself, if you can get your hands on it. The novel is very good, too. But it does lack the optimistic fundamental note and the humor of the movie.

Ersbel Oraph While the story might not vibrate with some, this is the entry point in adulthood for this particular director. Starting with his big screen debut he has struggled to reach a voice, a certain signature every important director has in order to have his work recognizable. From a first movie presented as a collage of different famous works and styles he finally reaches the ability to control the composition of a scene or master the use of light to bring a certain depth to a flat screen, thus opening the way for his future works. Too bad that he shows a turn to the commercial side of the cinematography in his last works. But for this one: Well done!Contact me with Questions, Comments or Suggestions ryitfork @ bitmail.ch