Coming Home《归来》(new Zhang Yimou 张艺谋 film)

[tooironic]

Just watched the new Zhang Yimou film "Coming Home" 《归来》 starring Gong Li (巩俐) and Chen Daoming (陈道明).

 

I came into the film with absolutely no knowledge of its plot or characters, just knowing that it was set during the Communist Revolution, and I recommend you do the same if possible. (It's always better to go into a film with no expectations or hype, in my opinion.)

 

I watched it in a cinema in Shanghai. The film had both English and Chinese subtitles. The English translation was of a very high quality.

 

I found the film itself very moving, with fantastic cinematography and acting. I also highly recommend it for any Chinese learner as the dialogue is not overly difficult, with a lot of practical vocabulary used, and all in very standard, evenly-paced Mandarin.

 

Has anyone else had the chance to see it yet?

[gato]

I saw it a few weeks ago. Thought it was good but not super, not at the level of his early movies like Ju Dou, probably a 6 or 7 out of 10.

The movie is adapted from the novel 陆犯嫣识. I read that the story in the novel starts in the 1930 and continuing to the end of the Cultural Revolution, making a bit like "To Live" in showing the history from 1930s to 1970s. But in order to pass censorship review and get this movie shown in China, Zhang Yimou chose to adapt only the last part of the novel, set at the end of Cultural Revolution.

Without giving away the plot, I thought the main themes of the story was forgiveness, family, and love. It's about reconciliation, after all the turmoil that preceded the story in the movie, which made it acceptable for the censors. But since this is the only movie about the Cultural Revolution era that's been allowed to shown in the theaters in mainland China in the decade or two (as far as I can remember), it is quite an achievement.

[Ruben von Zwack]

I'm just pestering my friends to watch it with me! It's always a challenge to find a) an evening where everyone is free and b) a film that more than 2 people out of 3 agree upon

[Onwards & Upwards]

I also watched the film over the holiday weekend. In addition to forgiveness, family, and love, I thought another major theme of the work, although less direct (which made it acceptable), was that some of the deeper wounds from that era have not yet healed even though the people have certainly done their best to persevere.

[gato]

Good point, O&U!

[Dean]

That's a good movie. However, the novel is even better.

[ouyangjun]

I saw this one a few weeks.  I thought it was a really good movie.  Maybe note 张艺谋 best, but really solid movie that is worth the watch... which is sometimes hard to come by when searching through new mainland films.