Together

Rating:
Summary: Chinese Eye Opener
Review: Father and son bonding movies are rare in Hollywood, so we go to China in 2002 to see an epic coupling of an adopted violin prodigy and his peasant father. Cheng Kaige writes with melodramatic familia yearnings. The tears flow as dad gets his thirteen-year-old smart aleck kid to the best teachers in Beijing with its enormous populations.

This is a real snapshot of a confused modern China. It's as today as any shopping mall or skyscraper in the USA, but at the same time the city has housing without amenities. This one is an eye opener for Americans that think China will be in the backwater very long.

Hong Chen is a modern Chinese woman with Madonna clothes. She beds businessmen for money. Hong says it is hard work, and she does seem to acquire cheating louses. Young Xiao Chun falls for her and sells his violin to buy her a coat, which creates much confusion. How is Xiao going to be a famous violinist without a violin? Violinists seem to be rock stars in China.


Rating:
Summary: A Film That Goes to the Soul Through a Touching Story/Music
Review: First of all, I want to encourage anyone out there who loves this movie to get the SOUNDTRACk of TOGETHER. It is available, and the album is both great and moving.

A friend and I went to see this film not knowing what we were getting ourselves into. By the time we left the movie, we were in awe. The story is fresh and innocent reminding the viewer of what is most important in life as a boy faces the struggle between his gift and his father. The music is powerful and actually moved me to tears (my friend, too). This will be most evident in the final scene....

This movie is subtitled but you quickly forget you are reading text (and the music proves that it is truly the universal language). When I watched the first scene of the film, the soundtrack leapt out at me. I knew this film was a quality production; I knew I would not be disappointed; i knew I MUST buy the soundtrack. The film is evenly paced and might not be exciting enough for some people. But if you are in the mood to watch a powerful story...this is one for you.

Sean

Rating:
Summary: Simple But Nice
Review: If readers were to look for a simple Chinese movies that would pull your heart strings such as Not One Less, The Road Home, this movie would suit you nicely. Despite that Together is not as sumptuous as Farewell My Concubine and not as grand as the Emperor and the Assasin, it is nevertheless a moving story about a father and son. Well, the story is predictable enough but personally, it's the honesty and concentration of the Director towards the main essentials in Together that made it such an enjoyable watch. The peasant father took the son to Beijing, the big city to find a good violin teacher, who hopefully would lead his son to fame and fortune. Along their way, their lives cross path with a talented and honest but undisciplined teacher, a gold digger woman who never cares for anyone or anything in her life. Those people's lives are about to change subsequently as their lives are directly and indirectly moved by the father and son's sincerities. Towards the second half of the movie, the nice teacher reaffirms the father's decision to change for yet another teacher who has connections to ensure that the son's career path would be a successful one. In the end, albeit fame and fortune, the movie questions us if that's what we seek for in life or for love and happiness. Be prepared for a twist in the movie. A movie about friendship, sacrifice, and love. Together also allows us to catch a glimpse of the modernising China, about who you know and what you know that get you places, and about the social structures in China. The DVD also has a additional features such as 2 or 5 Dolby stereo sounds, filmographies, interview with the Director. Highly commendable.

Rating:
Summary: The Power of Real Music
Review: In this day and age of 'sampled', 'pre-arranged', and 'borrowed' music, AND 'canned performances', it is easy to forget about the powerful, emotional immediacy of real, live musical performances acheived by accomplished artists. This older musical realm is quickly being forgotten, in the MTV generation, and, sadly, can now only usually be found in the halls of jazz, blues, and classical music. That said, the emotional power of the performances in this film should not surprise viewers. It is a very visceral, emotional experience because 'real' music is visceral and emotional. And what better way to purvey that power than through the performances of real, accomplished musicians, operating at the peak of their art? This is a glimpse into a world (that of young, talented musicians) that most of us (excluding this reviewer, thank you!) have no knowledge of. As a matter of fact, few persons who are not musicians can appreciate the real, emotional ties that exists between the musician, his chosen instrument, and the music. This movie builds a rather solid story, (about a boy, his father and their ambitions to find the true meaning of their relationship) against a background even more profound, and larger than any of them: the love and, ultimately, the power of the music. It shapes, defines, and clarifies their lives, and, eventually, helps them to determine what they mean to each other. I applaude this as an excellent film, both as a musician, a writer and story-teller, and most importantly, as a human being.

Rating:
Summary: Together Yun Tang
Review: It will be a long time before a movie such as this comes by again. Very uplifting, in a similar manner to Bend it Like Beckham. Music was incredible. Have already purchased the cd.

Rating:
Summary: Please bring some tissue...
Review: Just watched the movie at Copley Place last night, but the magic of the movie is still touching me....
The story tells things of ordinary people in ordinary days...but within those tiny things, we see true beauty of devotion, companion, and love.

Being a Chinese, I was so touched by this movie. My story is not so big as the boy, but the father of the movie is just like the image of my parents, who will always encourage me and be there for me...while sometimes, I just act like the boy......

The music played by the violin goes through the movie. Through the string of the violin, viewers' hearts being touched as the story going on.
A must-see movie, but remember to bring some tissue...

Rating:
Summary: Please bring some tissue...
Review: Just watched the movie at Copley Place last night, but the magic of the movie is still touching me....

The story tells things of ordinary people in ordinary days...but within those tiny things, we see true beauty of devotion, companion, and love.

Being a Chinese, I was so touched by this movie. My story is not so big as the boy, but the father of the movie is just like the image of my parents, who will always encourage me and be there for me...while sometimes, I just act like the boy......

The music played by the violin goes through the movie. Through the string of the violin, viewers' hearts being touched as the story going on.
A must-see movie, but remember to bring some tissue...

Rating:
Summary: Playing by Heart: Touching Drama about the Father and Son
Review: Leaving far behind the bad memory of thrill-less thriller "Killing Me Softly" (and I call it "Slowly Too,") acclaimed Chinese director Chen Kaige came back with this impressive drama about a boy and his father in modern China. Though this will not gain the worldwide praise he got with "Farewell My Concubine" or "The Assassin," "Together" will regain the status he nearly lost with his preceding work.

And here is the story. Though a small boy, Xiaochun is a prodigy violinist. Leaving their hometown, he and his father Liu Cheng, determined to make him a professional, come to the crowded Beijing Station with a handful amount of money hidden in his cap, dreaming of the chance they might get there. But the reality is hard on them; the violin contest they counted on only gives the boy the fifth prize while one of the judges Professor Jiang knows that he deserves the first. But the boy has no money, which means he has no place there.

But the father stubbornly insists, and finally Proferssor (who lives with many cats) accepts the boy as a student. While living in the big city, the boy meets a woman living in his neighborhood named Lili, whose lavish lifestyle depends on the wallets of her many lovers (and she writes down the phone numbers of them on the mirror in pink lipsticks). While he comes to like her, and she him, Xiaochun gets a chance to be apprenticed in the house of commercially successful Professor Yu. But that chance also means the separation from his father.

What is great about the film is, I think, the acting of the two leads by the boy Tang Yun and the father Peigi Liu. They really look like father and son, and Peigi Liu superbly realizes the father's rather alarmingly ardent attitudes toward his son and his talent. In short, he does whatever he has to do in order to give his son a success. The strong bond between them, and how the boy will react to it, is the thing which will revet your eyes.

As is the case with recent Chinese cinemas, "Together" reflects modern Chinese social conditions influenced by money. And that is why the ending of the film -- which I for one find too sentimental. At least, I can say that many of us will think the flashbacks are too abruptly introduced for us to believe in its contents. And though I like the boy's final decision, the last scene slightly gives me an impression that the characters (Lili, Professor Jiang and the father), who have been so far lively and three-dimentional, are reduced very flat existence among the sugary conclusion. The final act needs more time to develop fully, especially after the introduction of the one-dimentionally drwan rival pupil Lin Yu, who really looks like a monster hungery for fame.

But as a father-son drama "Together" is a great achievement, always believable and affectionately depicted. Plus, good acting and good music are always welcome.

Some trivia: Professor Yu is played by Chen Kaige himself. And Lili's Chen Hong is his real-life wife. The boy Tang Yun is really a violinist, and at the national contest (where Chen Kaige came to search the suitable actor to play the lead), he really ended up with the fifth. But the actual sound you hear is dubbed by the violinist Li Chuan Yun, who appears as Professor Yu's pupil who is scolded after the concert.

Rating:
Summary: Powerful Reality! A Masterpiece of Chinese Films in a decade
Review: Remarkable depiction of the strong bond between father and son. As an acclaimed Director, Kaige Chen presents us with a drama not only touching but close to sober reality.

Leaving their countryside hometown, a 13-year old boy Xiaochun came out to a crowded Beijing station with his father Liu Cheng, to entree a contest with high hope that it might lead to find a way to make his son a professional violinist. But the father soon sees nonsense and the harsh reality. Yet, regardless of their financially hard situation and not minding his rustic outfit, the father strives for finding a teacher to give his son a chance. With arduous persuasion, after the boy was finally accepted as a student by the Professor who is rather down on his luck, his father scurries about to get a job and take care of things to keep the lessons now his son has.

Watching the father Liu Cheng (played by Peiqi Liu) trying the best for his son Xiaochun (played by Yun Tang) is painfully heartwarming. Liu Peiqi's performance as an overwhelmingly caring father who does everything he can for his son, is a great achievement and an asset to this film. Emotional scenes played by Yun and the arias will touch your heart many times.

Rating:
Summary: 10 stars ?
Review: Simple but yet so powerful. This movie explores how emotions, feelings and expressions can be delivered powerfully by way of music. An uplifiting story combined with a beautiful soundtrack strings along harmonically that by the time the movie ends your yearning for more. I even forgot that this was a foreign film with subtitles.

This is a must see movie for people who truly appreciates the universal language of LOVE. Deep, heartwarming and much much more (this is not your typical Hollywood melodramatic movie).