Rating: 
Summary: Can I give it six stars?
Review: Having lived in Shanghai for many months, I have maintained a love for the people and the country. This movie will take you through every emotion available to you including fear, sadness, panic and joy. I shipped a copy to a friend in China (where it is banned).
I can just picture it being hidden in a basket of rice....
Rating:
Summary: Great film
Review: I loved this film after I have seen it 10 times or more. It was introduced to me in one of my chinese history classes by a professor. Great for historians that are interested in the Cultural Revolution in China. I do hope to see it on DVD soon!
Rating:
Summary: One of the best films (not just foreign) of all time!!
Review: This film is truly a work of art, a masterpiece. It is also an incredibly interesting history lesson on the last 70 years of history in China. I saw this film when it was first released in US theaters and its memory has stayed with me for all these years. I am thrilled to see all of the positive reviews it has received from Amazoners and hope to see it in DVD soon. This is a keeper if there ever was one.
Rating:
Summary: A good film about the sad times in China.
Review: To live is one of the best and final examples of new Chinese cinema.
Film tells the story of people during ht ehard times of great leap forward and cultural revolution.
Story starts with the story of a a rich but a careless man who looses everything on gambling. After that we start to witness the major events in 20th century China's history. He is recruited by kuomitang and founds him self in the battle ground, soon captured and starts entertaining communist troops with his puppets. Later united with his family and becomes hopeful for the future and fully believes communist ideology. With the dissapointment and famine of great leap forward and the horrors of cultural revolution, we all witness the Chinese people's dreams shatter one by one which were all promised by chairman Mao.
Unlike farewell my concubine and blue kite, these are the stories of people whose lives are shattered not directly by the events but rather indirectly. ( extremely well portrayed with the birth scenes in the hospital with all doctors jailed and only students and nurses remain) Gong Li gives another solid performance since she is no stranger to such characters, as the sacrificing but strong wife who carries his husband on the bad times. You Ge and the rest of the actors are excellent, and they all give simple, minimal but powerful as well as very realistic performances. Directors and the staff also manages to come up with and excellent portrayal of China and like other excellent Chinese films of 90's ,realistic shots and sequences are all remarkable.The battlefield shots of civil war, the execution of a landlord and the fear on the face of the puppet master (it is great to be poor, telling his wife) and the hospital scenes are all meister work.
Actually film's name tell us all about it very economically. To live.Simple and common people's struggle to live and look after their families against all odds. and film gives that remarkably well.
If you enjoyed the blue kite and/or farewell my concubine, you will definitely like this film.
Rating: 
Summary: Imagine...
Review: Imagine picking up a cat by the tail, swinging it around like a bullroarer, and then smaking a baby over and over with it. THAT is what all of the "Chinese Opera" scenes sound like. (This is harsh, but it's what it sounds like to my uber-western ears.)Other than that, it's pretty good. The story is of a family during a dark, dark bloody revolution. The father is a nobleman, and a compulsive gambler. His family disgraced, he must seek work in new, Communist setting. After endure many hardships and trials, the story comes more or less full circle, and gives the viewer hope not only for the future of this family, but to be able to choose their own fate.
Rating:
Summary: an experience
Review: This was an emotional experience to see the lives played out over the years. The horror and the accepting of the tragedy of China..The inhumane treatment of their own people was shocking to me, as I read many book of Chinese history , this movie portrays it sadly, It is a miracle anything or anyone survived the revolution and the purges...
Rating:
Summary: The best GongLi/ZhangYiMou movie ever!
Review: Black comedy doesn't get better than this, This movie shows the ridiculousness of the cultural revolution in China. The lengths the common people went through just To Live (to survive). By far the best Zhang Yi Mou film in that this one is funny - in a subtle way. A piece of paper declaring the protagonist's status as a worker (not a landowner) was initially discarded but then have to be reclaimed and FRAMED to ward off prospective accusers, or a gift from an enemy that turned out to be a picture of chairman mao and thus could not be returned. This is an artist's (Zhang) reflection of the life that was under the mao rule. One needs to know Chinese history in order to get the In jokes and thus appreciate the film.
Rating:
Summary: A strartling awakening to the Western audience
Review: The Xu family in To Live suffers from one of the main losses of the Cultural Revolution. They are not free to live a peaceful life, independent of the Revolution. In books and film both, much has been done about victims of political denunciation, of imprisonment, of people being "sent down" to the countryside for re-education, and of people simply being assassinated for "counter-revolutionary activity." This film opens our eyes to this other, very real, brand of suffering brought about by Mao's Cultural Revolution. The characters are very richly portrayed, Gong Li is as brilliant as always, and the symbolism, while rich, is also accessible to the lay audience. It is impossible not to become involved with this family's plight. I thought about them for days after seeing this.
Rating:
Summary: To Live
Review: This movie was shown before a freshman class in high school to educate them about Chinese culture and the Cultural Revolution. In some cases, this movie made the students laugh and cry.... though it was mostly cry. I would reccomend this movie to anyone who likes historic movies.
Rating:
Summary: MAGNIFICENT
Review: Perhaps the best film that has ever been made about life during and after a revolution shown through the eyes of one family. The film opens with a scene from the luxurious and decadant Imperial China of the past. Here a feckless aristocrat Fugui ( Ge You) squanders away his family fortune in a gambling den. With the best lines coming from his outraged elderly father. As he shrieks "Turtle spawn !" at his son. As he honors the debts incured by signing over the lease. The uniqueness of the film is that life will become so uncertain and traumatic because of unforseen revolutionary political events. So what at first is considered a misfortune eventually becomes a blessing. When Fugui eventually goes cup in hand to ask for money from his former gambling partner. He is denied money but given puppets to earn his living by instead. Having a natural flair for comedy he is a success. Thus allowing the story to unfold in a unmelodramatic and realistic manner. The great Gongi Li who plays his wife Jaizhen is superb at expressing the unspoken emotion of the crisis in which they find themselves. They will witness war at first hand the death of loved ones and even betrayal. As each adversity greets them the resolute response to heartaches is not defeat but a refusal to relinqish the desire to live on. This film is fast paced without being superficial and humourous without being disrespectful. You will laugh and cry but mainly you will find it unforgettable. I for one will never forget the look on the parents face when they realize that all the doctors have been arrested as "capitalist reactionaires" So there are only inexperienced students left to deliver their mute daughter's baby. Its classic in the world of cinema and deserves hundreds of accolades. Because its a gut wrenching scene that has never been suppassed in realism. Gongi Li amd Ge You are incredible no wonder the film was banned in china. "To Live" is a crushing indictment of the price ordinary Chinese people paid to satisfy Chairman Mao Zedong's communist ideology. This film is a must see
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