To Live

Rating:
Summary: Over 2 hours long, but not long enough
Review: This film follows a family through the changes brought about by the Chinese Cultural Revolution. Beautifully photographed and exquisitely acted, it offers Westerners a rare glimpse into a way of life that was - at that time - closed to much of the outside world.

Above all else, this is a story of love and the human spirit overcoming all obstacles.

There is a reason why it is so highly rated. It's an unforgettable movie. Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: THE BEST
Review: I just watched this movie in my social studies class at school, as we've been learning about China's history. It was probably one of the best movies I have ever seen. It helps if you know some stuff about Chinese history, such as the civil war, the communist's rule and Deng's Revolution.

Rating:
Summary: epic and intimate
Review: I watch "To Live" once a year. It is in the top five of my favorite movies. Everyone else has said what's important, but I will add that the theme music is haunting and exquisite. Once I read that the most tenacious life forms, like bristle cone shrubs, are ones that can die back, allowing the core to live on in most harsh conditions. A core theme here is forgiveness, on both large and small scales, and how letting go of the past, like dying back, enables us to go on. What a film. What I would give to meet Zhang Yimou, whose other films including Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern, and Red Sorghum, are marked by the same careful attention to the significance of the intimate encased in epic themes. One last thing, share this film with your friends. Many of mine appreciated it.

Rating:
Summary: Just want to add my 5 stars for this extraordinary film
Review: To Live captures survival like no other film I've ever seen. Where else but China could this many extreme changes occur in one couple's lives?

Rating:
Summary: A moving tragedy
Review: To live is a story about surviving under the most adverse circumstances. It displayed the exordinary will of the ordinary people to live in the worst circumstances. For sure, it is very bleak and tragic (even the occasional "humours" are dark), yet it still contains hope. Very moving and touching.

Rating:
Summary: "To Live" Life
Review: Director Zhang Yimou creates an incredibly vivid portrait of life -- its triumphs, its ironies, its tragedies -- in TO LIVE, arguably one of his best films to date.

TO LIVE weaves the story of one poverty-stricken family -- Fugui, Jiazhen (played by the stunning Gong Li), Youqing, and Fengxia -- as they face life's challenges through several decades. Principally, the story uses the backdrop of the revolution to alter China's political structure more and more toward Communism, and this works winningly as the family continues to have to rethink their commitment to political principles while enduring some devastating losses. The acting is superb, the cinematography is unforgettable, and the story is equal parts pain and pleasure, with humor thrown in to boot.

TO LIVE is, arguably, not for everyone. It is a pure drama, and, as a consequence, there are several passages that may seem meaningless to the viewer as their significance can only be measured by the events to come; patience is a virtue that is heavily rewarded in viewing this stellar film from one of the most creative directors working in the world today. However, I would strongly support TO LIVE being required viewing for students of history if not for students in high school to come to a greater understanding (and appreciation) of the relevance that government plays in shaping the lives we live.

Rating:
Summary: Cinematic genius
Review: A tale of the human spirit that is an impeccably wrought piece of cinema, deeply moving in both its direct humanity and in its implications.

And Zhang Yimou is a cinematic genius. Just to take one example, there is a scene where pregnant Fengxia is taken to the hospital to give birth, but it seems the doctors have all been thrown out as "reactionaries" leaving her in the care of "revolutionary" (but medically clueless) students. It is the way Zhang Yimou orchestrates this sequence that is so impressive. It starts out as political satire, acquires elements of comedy, moves to the grotesque, and finally ends as a tragedy. Simply stunning.

Rating:
Summary: Disappointment
Review: This film completely butchers, rearranges, and rewerites an incredibly moving novel. I suggest that you read the book first.

Rating:
Summary: 6 Stars +
Review: To Live is a masterful project and deserves the best praises for foreign cinema. It touches every emotion possible in its depiction of one family's faults and successes; life as it might have been in the midst of political chaos. To Live maps the losses and gains of Fugui and Jiazhen--an average young couple moving through China. It's difficult to discuss the turns and movement without spoiling the movie. However, I will say the couple we encounter in the 1940s and end with in the 1960s is triumphant and tells a story never to be forgotten. Highly Recommended!!!!!!