Together

Rating:
Summary: Young violinist prodigy coming of age...
Review: Together a young violinist prodigy, Liu Xiaochun, and his dad arrive in Beijing where Xiaochun is participating in a big violin competition. The son does not win, but the dad is determined that the son can become one of the greatest and he pursues violin teachers to help Xiaochun develop his full potential. The story is told around Xiaochun's musical talent, love, and a hidden secret. Together is a wonderful story where director Chen maximizes the cinematic experience through the use of music and by minimizing the character Xiaochun's lines.

Rating:
Summary: A lesson on feelings
Review: TOGETHER is a coming of age story that emotionally mature members of the U.S. audience should find exotically different from the standard fare of the genre. First of all, the locale is mainland China. Secondly, our hero, a teenage male, isn't seduced by an older woman into his first sexual encounter. This is obviously not a Hollywood-made picture.

Liu Xiaochun (Tang Yun) is a 13 year-old, phenomenally talented, classical violinist, who lives in a provincial Chinese town with his father, Liu Cheng (Liu Peiqi), a single-parent. The boy wins the opportunity to vie in a major competition in Beijing, so the two set off to the Big City with all of Dad's savings stuffed in his cap.

In Beijing, Xiaochun places 5th. (As it turns out, he would have likely won if not for the bribes paid on behalf of the top 4.) In any case, he's denied entrance into the Conservatory because he and his father have no official permits to live in the city. So, after finding the rough lodgings suited to technically illegal residents, they set about hiring a private tutor to hone Xiaochun's skills.

While Tang Yun plays the lead, he is, for much of the film, inscrutable. It's not clear if Tang Yun does his own violin work. If so, then he should perhaps give up acting and go on tour as a classical violinist because that's his greatest talent. My favorite performance was that of Liu Peiqi, who is stellar as the embodiment of country bumpkin in demeanor, mannerisms and dress in the environment of the relatively sophisticated capital.

For the viewer, TOGETHER is a wealth of engaging plots and subplots. The main thread of the storyline, that of finding a tutor for Xiaochun, is neatly split into two as first one, Prof. Jiang (Wang Zhiwen) is discovered, and then a second, Prof. Yu Shifeng (Chen Kaige - also the film's director). The boy's time with the latter incorporates a minor aside involving Lin Yu (Zhang Qing), a girl student competing with Xiaochun for Shifeng's favor. Overlaying all this, and providing a comedic element, is Xiaochun's platonic infatuation with Lili (Chen Hong - also the film director's wife), who lives in a comfortable apartment nearby to the hovel shared by Liu Cheng and his son. Lili is apparently a working girl whose companionship is available for hire by well-off males, although the presumed sexual nature of this arrangement is never explicitly made clear.

My only complaint regarding TOGETHER is that delivery of the story's message, i.e. that feelings are more important than technique when it comes to playing a musical instrument, is prolonged. The film would have benefited greatly from judicious editing, which, in my opinion, should have deleted the Prof. Jiang character entirely, reduced the involvement of Lili, and expanded the interaction between Xiaochun, Shifeng, and Lin Yu. I say this even though the director's occasionally mesmerizing use of light is best exemplified during the scene when Jiang finally comes out of the funk brought on by a long ago lost love.

TOGETHER is an elegantly artistic film to watch and savor.

Rating:
Summary: This movie is a hidden gem.
Review: UA problably chose to put this movie out in limited release with a likesize advertising budget because it's a foreign film and because the people behind and in front of the camera are mostly unknown to American audiences. And that's too bad!

This is a heartwarming film! Yes, like so many Chinese films it tends toward being a tear jerker, but for the most part the performances are excellent.

My wife (Chinese) and I (American) saw this film on a late afternoon in the middle of the week. Including us there were 8 people in the theatre. Again, that's a shame because this is a well-made film. If you believe in family values, responsibility to those who support and believe in you, this is a movie you should want to see.

My wife is far move familiar with the China movie scene than I. She says that all people involved in this project have established reputations there. From the quality of the film, I have to agree. Whenever this film goes to DVD, I'll probably buy it.

Rating:
Summary: Simple yet deep and very touching
Review: Very touching and heart-breaking. Although the movie seemed to be simple at the first sight but it grew more complicated and appealing as it started revealing the hidden life stories of the child.

What impressed me most is that how the boy could deliver all his feelings, emotions, and expressions just through his violin! In fact, I could understand his hidden emotion just by looking at him playing the instrument.

A very well done production, if not perfect. The best Chinese movie I've ever seen.

Rating:
Summary: CHINESE MELODRAMA
Review: Very well put together film portraying the choice a young man has to make between personal success and family. I watched many films like this but of poor quality and in black and white, when I lived in Hong Kong 35 years ago. It would not be accurate to describe it as soap opera but it is certainly melodrama.

There are many better films than this coming out of modern China. I would recommend King of Masks before this one as a slick tear jerker that has superb acting (including the monkey) throughout. There are outstanding scenes of China and old Chinese village life. The cinematography and technical aspect of the film is superb.

Rating:
Summary: CHINESE MELODRAMA
Review: Very well put together film portraying the choice a young man has to make between personal success and family. I watched many films like this but of poor quality and in black and white, when I lived in Hong Kong 35 years ago. It would not be accurate to describe it as soap opera but it is certainly melodrama.

There are many better films than this coming out of modern China. I would recommend King of Masks before this one as a slick tear jerker that has superb acting (including the monkey) throughout. There are outstanding scenes of China and old Chinese village life. The cinematography and technical aspect of the film is superb.

Rating:
Summary: touching 'coming-of-age' story - Beautiful Music
Review: Woven into the story of a young violin prodigy from the countryside of China on the path to fame in Beijing, is a wonderful "coming of age story" about learning to follow your heart.

The music in this story is beyond compare. I have already ordered the soundtrack and I just watched this movie last night.

The young star is brilliant. The supporting roles were superb. I especially enjoyed the relationships that develop between the young boy and his first music teacher and between his father and the young neighbor.

The mandarin dialogue is excellently translated into idiom-rich English. I also liked the openness of the movies portrayal of the "guanxi" (favoritism) in Chinese society.

American watchers may find one or two conversations a bit slow and circular - but remember you are catching a glimpse into another society - one that is not so fast paced and not always as direct in speech as our own. All in all, this movie has a fast pace a plot that keeps you guessing what will happen next. The teenage star throws in a twist of his own (as teenagers often do).

Unless the sound of beautiful, emotional orchestral music with powerful ever intensifying violin solos makes you want to put cotton in your ears and leave the building, I can't think of anyone who would not like this movie.

Rating:
Summary: COULD HAVE BEEN A GREAT MOVIE
Review: Xiaochun (Tang Yun) is a young violin prodigy from the countryside. He and his father, Cheng (Liu Peiqi), take off for Beijing to seek fame and fortune for the talented boy. Dad has his own selfish reasons, of course, living out his life through his son as parents of artistic kids so often do. Xiaochun comes in fifth at a very doctored competition in which the very top spots go to the rich. Rejected by the sponsoring school, he and his dad go off looking for a private teacher and they find Professor Jiang (Wang Zhiwen), a violinist with a complicated personal life. He'd rather get his pupil to search for his lost socks than play music.

Xiaochun develops a connection with Prof. Jiang, and he forms a bizarre friendship/romance with a semi-wealthy Beijing socialite named Lili, for whom he feels obligated to buy lavish gifts. Cheng feels that his son isn't headed in the right direction and sets out to find a violin teacher with more ambition for his son. He has trouble with this, because Xiaochun isn't willing to put his violin career ahead of what he feels are his personal "obligations" These are his obligations to Lili, to Prof. Jiang and to himself. But eventually, Cheng does manage to manipulate him to switch to the celebrated Prof. Yu (acted by the director), where Xiaochun has to share glory with another talented violinist.

This movie comes very close to being a good one. Maybe that's why its failings are more noticeable. Certain characters should have been best left out of this movie because they are unnecessary and are distractions from the main story. But the character of Xiaochun's father can positively set your teeth on edge. Was that deliberate? Most of TOGETHER is sweet, and some of it is moving. But there's much that's embarrassing for both the audience and the characters. There are even some fairly boring sections to make you wonder: "Why?"

TOGETHER is certainly worth seeing. It is just frustrating that a movie which could have been a great one leaves you with honestly having to say, "it's O.K."

Rating:
Summary: Not Too Convincing
Review: Yes, we have some nice clips of violin music here and there and some rather interesting depictions of how people live in Beijing. But the story is not very powerful and not very dramatic. It is not too convincing to start with: A biological (musical?) mother bestowing a gift of music on her son who was separated ( or abandoned ) from her in his very early infancy and was instead raised up by a rustic waitor in a village. The chance for a violinist career is particularly slim in an environment that was over-filled with Chinese cultures ( sounds, sights and music and what not) and where any sign of Western culture is almost absent. Look! Uptil now, how many world-class Asian violinists are there despite every chance and effort to that effect?

The gold-digger part if true is most rare, less than one in a thousand. The violin teachers? We have heard of similar cases in the West in the past. A professor in music who could make that kind of money to support his students to live in his home, who bought back an instrument valued at RMB 50,000 or above for his student just in case, whereas the other apparently good teacher lives like a church mouse... We do hope that we have more such professors in China.

The director? I instead recommend readers to check out the director of YiYi (A One and A Two), an even bigger prize winner, including the Cannes Festival for directorship, the best film of the year (US) and the best foreign film etc. It would certainly tell you more about Chinese life and thinking and behaviour and what directorship is about.

Nevertheless, the film is not too boring especailly if you are inclined towards some kind of Walt Disney story, or if you long to see some foreign sights/lives for a change, this is not too bad a choice.