Rating: 
Summary: A simple, yet wholly moving and beautiful film.
Review: Eclipsing any romantic comedy or drama from Hollywood in the last 30 years, The Road Home achieves so much by doing very little. Master filmmaker Zhang Yimou successfully captures what it's really like to fall in love for the first time through his use of cinematography (sumptuous as always), unparalleled attention to detail, and, as always, a super strong cast (spearheaded by relative newcomer, the beautiful Zhang Ziyi). Unlike most romance movies, there is no love-making in this film. There is no kissing. The characters show their love through little things that we often take for granted: preparing food, giving small yet meaningful gifts, and other gestures. Like most of Zhang Yimou's films, there is relatively little music, however, the music that is there is perfect. It rises to the occasion when needed and dies down when not.
All of the elements of this film work together like clockwork...better than clockwork. It manages to get its message across more than western romances through uncomparable use of setting and shot framing, costume and make-up, lighting (with some brilliantly-back lit shots of the actors), and figure behavior.
Now about the DVD. This is a film whose setting was meant to be seen only in widescreen. The picture holds up well both in sun-lit outdoor conditions and slightly darker indoor scenes. The voices are set at a nice level and when the score hits its high note, the sound is heavenly...even through a plain Dolby Surround system.
Plain and simple, this is a film which should not be passed up.
Rating:
Summary: A beautiful, simple movie
Review: The Road Home is a beautifully filmed, very well acted and well made movie whose simplicity masks a wide range of complex emotions and cultural commentary.
On the surface, The Road Home is the simple story of a man who must return his father's body to his home village, as requested by his mother, and the story of how his parents met and fell in love. But the beauty of the story lies in this simplicity. There is no obvious pretense or ulterior motives that appear on screen. It simply is what it is. But there are so many feelings and messages contained within that they cannot be put into words. It has to be seen and experienced to truly understand. The dialogue and music are kept to an absolute minimum, the bulk of the "action" is conveyed through the subtle gestures of the main characters. Most of the dialogue is voiceover, and even then only to explain context. American audiences(and critics especially) might not be able to grasp everything that is going on in this film, and that is a shame, because I would think that this story could relate to anybody. Maybe it is just too simple to hold a western audience's attention, or I don't even know what their problem might be. But for me it tells the story of my own parents, and of my grandparents, and of all of my ancestors going back forever. It touched me very deeply and makes me long for a time when life was really this simple and pure. Absolutely breathtaking in my opinion, and worth a viewing by anybody who can bear to sit and watch a 90 minute film that lacks explosions, blood, nudity, or even a single kiss.
Rating:
Summary: The best of all Zhang's movies
Review: Another example of director Zhang Yi Mou's style to film the world from the woman's perspective, even though the narrator is a man. Enough to make a grown man cry like a baby - well, may be not, but quite touching, and definitely enough to make some women cry. Note: half of the women in the theatre were untouched by the movie when they got out, which can also explain why true love is so hard to find but so easy to buy these days... and why men, like me, is always unsuccessful when asking to date beautiful stars like Zhang Zi Yi. A love story took place in a small village during the Cultural Revolution. The narrator's mother, Zhang, is the village beauty, and fell in love on first sight with the new teacher in town, the narrator's father, in a time when the term "free love" was not even coined, a time of arranged marriage. A simple plot, but it is the proving ground of the director's masterful skills. The film itself is a piece of artwork. You can almost smell the atmostphere of the simplicity of rural life. In reality, I bet it would be hard to find a girl that looks like Zhang in such a village, but her appearance still matches the settings, and quite well too. Also the filming is perfect. If you can take snapshots of the scenaries shown, you can easily win prizes in photography contest. The backgroud music is not exceptional, but also matches the settings.
Rating:
Summary: Quite Possibly the Best Movie I've Seen This Year
Review: After recently sitting rather painfully through the overhyped and underwhelming "Erin Brocovich," I got to see this little gem of a film--thank goodness! "The Road Home" is everything that "Erin Brockovich" isn't: genuine, moving, sensitive, inspirational. Sure, the charming and enormously talented Zhang Ziyi ("Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon") doesn't shove her {body] in everyone's face, but then she doesn't have to. She has true substance (and reminds one of a young Audrey Hepburn), creating a character in this film so charismatically decent that it makes the eponymous Brocovich look like a truck stop dumpster. Ziyi plays Di, a determined, soulful farmgirl who falls in love with a kindly schoolteacher (Zheng Hao), sent to her village in 1950s China. Told in flashback by their son (Sun Honglei), we discover that despite many obstacles the two marry, an unusual circumstance in a time of arranged marriages, and it is upon the death of the schoolteacher 40 years later while trying to raise money for his school that the second part of the story begins: that of a son honoring his father. With no explosions, drug use, foul language, or graphic sex, "The Road Home" has only real emotions for its fuel, and yet under the steady hand of director Zhang Yimou, the film makes a bigger impression than any tinny Hollywood blockbuster I've seen in the last ten years. If you want to see a romance that shines light upon what is truly valuable in life, see this film!
Rating: 
Summary: Captivating Story About Endearing Love
Review: This movie was very heart-felt & I couldn't help but using up all the tissues available to me. Lovers would probably emphatise with the main characters when they first fall in love, when they were head over heels over somebody & would do foolish things without knowing exactly why. Unlike Western movies, due to Eastern culture (probably of the past anyhow), the expression of love was subtle but obvious just the same. The story slowly unfolded & only till the end, we started to realise the reasons why "the road home" was so important to Zhang ZiYi's character when she was an old lady. Anyhow, the film was simply but beautifully made with perfect setting, giving us glimpses of trades that were dying or extinct such as porcelain repairer, believable cast. Zhang ZiYi was such a revelation in the movie. It's not her script that made her stood out but her body language of an 18 years old that defied the local tradition of match-making but followed her heart to be with someone she truly loved. For a change, this movie didn't explore or criticise political beliefs in China then but concentrated wholly in the pursuance of the ideal of love. Highly recommended
Rating:
Summary: OH MY GOD
Review: OH OH OH OH OH OH OH,MY GOD ,WHAT IS THIS ,I LOVE THIS MOVIE,VERY BEAUTIFUL,THIS IS MY FAVOR,YIMOU ZHANG THE BEST FILM MAKER IN THE WORLD.HE DID A GREAT WORK
Rating:
Summary: The Power of Subtlety
Review: I am sitting down to write these comments after just having watched again this incomparable film. To do this is a bit perilous -- in the same way going to the supermarket when very hungry is perilous; there is the risk of excess.I wanted to use the word "Art" in the title of this review, but thought better of it because some readers might be put off by that word. That is, some may think a picture described as "art" is somehow not relevant, perhaps inaccessible, and probably not really interesting -- something one watches because it's part of a recommended repertoire, not because it's really enjoyable. To not experience this film for that or any other reason would be unfortunate. I first watched this film without any recommendation or knowledge of its content, but was anxiously seeking out things Chinese because I was traveling often to China, and was deeply in love with a beautiful young Chinese girl, not so unlike Zhang Ziyi, I met in the enchanted countryside of Guangxi Province. After seeing the film I enthusiastically recommended it to others, purposely not telling anything of the story. I always advised my friends to just watch and let the story unfold, and I recommend this also to the gentle readers of this review. Anyway, this film is not "about" the plot, it's about being human. The plot of this film is not important in the same way a Rorshach ink blot is not important. But, like the ink blot, this film will reveal something, possibly much, of what is inside the beholder. When my friends would report back to me after watching the movie, I discovered the responses were not universally the same, and I found I was judging these people based on how they responded to this film. I found myself wondering of someone who is not moved by this film: How deep is your humanity? How old can your soul be? If we don't share some common message from this movie, what else of subtance in life could we share? Yes, yes, I know, compressing an entire human life to the span of a motion picture can be a cheap gimmick to manipulate viewers to feelings of pity. But this film goes far beyond fleeting feelings of pathos; it causes at least some viewers to have laid bare some essential quality of the human experience that before was likely untouched, and undiscovered. To have this done is a deeply emotional experience. This is the meaning of the word "epiphany." This is accomplished with simplicity, subtlety, and absolutely, magnificently beautiful filming. The crisp autumn air of northern China, the turning autumn leaves, and the almost exclusive use of the low, late afternoon sun, coupled with backlighting and side-lighting creates a visual masterpiece, and contributes greatly to the emotional masterpiece. Watch this movie, and find out about yourself, if you dare. Recommend it to your friends, especially your lover, and find out about them, if you dare.
Rating:
Summary: the best romance movie ever!!!!!!!!
Review: ill say it simple, a movie, with not to dialogue, but an exquisite managment of feelings, if you can, see it, highly recomended,
Rating:
Summary: simple and beautiful film
Review: This film begins when a young man returns to the remote village where he grew up. His father has died and his mother has made a request -- that the village men carry him back from the regional hospital on foot according to tradition so that he will alway know his way home. The problem is that there are no young men left in the village, they have all gone to the city. As the young man examines his mother's wishes, he relates the story of his parents' courtship. This is a simple love story that is beautiful and compelling. DVD extras are few: 5 trailers and filmographies for the director and star. The film can be heard in Mandarin or French, and subtitles are available in English or French.
Rating:
Summary: Great movie that I would love to watch again and again
Review: The Road Home is a movie about a very standard and simple love on the first site story. The beauty is in the great acting and the spirit that comes out of the actors. I liked a lot to watch how people in such villages live and how they dress and the movie gave attention to many daily events of those people. Again, the acting is gorgeous, but the values that the movie is showing is great also and the strong bounds in the family is there in the movie and you can see how much the love and respect of a sun would make him do to meet his mothers wishes and how grateful student can be to a teacher gave his life to them. Another point that I liked in the movie is how the director use color. In the current events, you will see black and white scenes and when flashbacks start the colors will come a life. The old days are better and there was the real life for the characters of this movie not the current days, except for the day the sun took his father's place in the school and start teaching the students of the village. Great movie that I would love to watch again and again.
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