Starring: Ge You, Gong Li
Rating: ***
ZHANG YIMOU, director of Raise the Red Lantern and Jou Dou, has created a stunningly simple and touching film about a working class family as they are swept along in the changes of the Cultural Revolution. The simplicity of the film is deceiving, however, as numerous personal and political complexities are addressed over a 40-year period, resulting in a seamless and easily understandable portrait of Chinese life under communist rule.
Abandoning his "each frame as a painting" style of filming, Yimou instead has made a film that touches the heart rather than stuns the eye of the viewer, yet retains far subtler vestiges of Yimou's visual genius.
From the opening sequences in a gambling den in the 1940's, as Fugui (Ge You) gambles away the remaining family fortune, to his capture on the freezing battle plains of Northern China and his eventual return home, the film remains focused on the humanity of the characters without losing the richness of the surroundings, making it Yimou's most well-balanced work to date.
Fugui and Jaizhen (Gong Li) are a couple with little desire other than to lead a quiet life and raise their family in peace. The advent of the communist revolution tears them apart only to reunite them again and, as they struggle to fulfil their wish, the new regime alternately helps and hinders their attempts as it takes The Great Leap Forward, and forces its way into every home, for better or worse.
As the Cultural Revolution sweeps China, the film focuses on the integration of communism into the lives of the family as they endure personal upheavals while coping with the political changes. Often the two intermingle, and Li and You are superb as they juggle the intricacies of reacting to the broad spectrum of influences that shape their lives as they move towards old age together.
The film has some deeply tragic moments, but the overall blend is an uplifting monument to the human spirit and the ability to find hope and joy in the face of adversity.