To Live

Rating:
Summary: Gong Li's best role (should have won an academy award)
Review: One of the finest foreign films I have ever seen. A superb story (sort of a chinese communist version of Little Big Man and It's a Wonderful Life.) Gong Li as a mother rivals Greer Garson's WWII version when she won the Oscar for her role in Mrs. Miniver. Some westerners may find the chinese singing at the puppet shows a little difficult to listen to and may have to fast forward through these parts.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent portrayal of working class chinese family
Review: This is a director who can portray the essence of Mao's china and the cultural idiosincracies that would be lost if he did not take the chances he has as a filmaker in Communist China. If knowing more about our world is important to you, we highly reccomend this movie.

Rating:
Summary: An Epic Film
Review: I was touched and moved by this movie. It was aestically beautiful and the characters were amazing. I cried when the whole show was over.A must see for people who want to see the effects of the Cultural Revolution.

Rating:
Summary: Is there a soundtrack available?
Review: Does anyone know if there is a soundtrack available for "To Live?" I've been unable to find it in music stores or online.

Rating:
Summary: Great Movie
Review: This movie truly shows what it is to live through joy and pain. The cinematography is fantastic and the story line keeps you guessing at what will happen next and it's always a surprise, be it joyful or depressing. One of the few movies that brought tears to my eyes.

Rating:
Summary: a film religious in the only sense I know -- Life.
Review: We too often forget that in the production of today lies the hopeful classic's of tomorrow. Twain once said that a "classic" is something everybody wishes to have read, but that nobody wishes to take the time to read, and I only hope it doesn't apply to this film. A testament to the life that exists within us all -- its crowning achievement. To live shouts with the loudest of voice the depth and power of hope, of the human will, of love. It does it almost without words, without music, without art. In one of the most horrible political/religious settings imaginable, it screams it almost without either. It speaks only with life.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Film
Review: This film is one of the best I have ever seen; I only award it a four because it has a slow beginning, but the slowness could be easily justified by the progress and contrast thereafter.

Rating:
Summary: "To Live" is a classic many may not have heard about.
Review: I saw this on video because my friend told me it was his favorite film. I thought at the time "What is it about this film that makes it his favorite?" But, after I saw the movie and became the characters I realized that living is what we all do. That this foreign film, that I was afraid of, and had never looked at in the video store, was something special. It showed me that through it all, this man and woman fought, changed, loved, suffered, endurred, and lived. By their experiences, my spirit was touched in ways I had never thought of. Now when people ask me what I think is the best film I ever saw, I prompty reply "To Live"

Rating:
Summary: "A movie that speaks for the unspoken."
Review: This movie was amazing! Yimou does an excellent job portraying how an ordinary, apolitical family survives great political upheaval and personal sorrow. Ge You and Gong Li give two amazing performances. You are wrapped up in the movie within minutes and soon feeling the same emotions as the actors. You don't know whether to laugh or cry, shout hurrah or ball your eyes out, or walk away feeling grateful or depressed. There is never a dull moment in this film-you are either caught up in the dialogue, or entranced by the amazing cinematography. It is truly one of the greatest movies of all time.

Rating:
Summary: A Stirring, Emotional Portrayl of Bitter Times in China
Review: "To Live" was the first Asian film I saw and awed me tremendously. The film is truly a piece of cinematic art. Its acting is supurb - of all the Zhang Yimou films I have seen (four or five) this is the best acted. Gong Li and You Ge give fabulous performances, with excellent body language and characterization.

The story, like Chen Kaige's "Farewell My Concubine" (also a portrayl of Chinese history, with more emphasis on the people than the history), follows people through the Communist Revolution, the Great Leap Forward, and the Cultural Revolution, all highly influential events in Modern Chinese history. (If you are unfamiliar with these events, the first is when the Communists took over China; the GLF is when the country tried to increase production through very extreme measures and failed horribly; the Cultural Revolution was an entire social reorganization aimed to stir up the passions of the people and to weed out Capitalists.)

Anyhoo, the people are Jiazhen (Gong Li) and Fugui (You Ge), husband and wife. In the beginning, Fugui bets away his entire family fortune, which eventually saves them from being labelled Capitalists by the Communists. More events transpire - including two tragic deaths that could have destroyed Jiazhen and Fugui's family for good - until finally thirty years of revolution and tragedy bring them to the 1970's.

In addition to the beauty of the film, the soundtrack by Zhao Jiping is incredible, and almost makes me cry from its sheer power.

This film is truly a winner!