Rating: 
Summary: A gorgeous, sweet love story
Review: This is one of the most deeply moving films I have seen in a very long while. The story is sweet and meaningful, and the acting is absolutely exquisite. This film is lovely and quiet, beautifully filmed, and restrained. One of the things that impressed me about the movie is the obvious acting talents of Zhang Ziyi, the actress who played Jen in Crouching Tiger. If you think you'll even recognize her in this role, I challenge you to see the movie to find even one remnant of Jen in her character. She is an excellent actress and conveys realms of thought and feeling without saying a single word. If you're hoping for a fast-paced, run-of-the-mill movie you won't absorb, see something else. See 'The Road Home' if you want gorgeous and rich cinema.
Rating:
Summary: Sometimes Simple is Best...
Review: A superior performance than Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon, Zhang Ziyi stars as a village woman, of whom is the most beautiful, that falls in love with the village teacher. Her performance, though mostly silent, is excellent, and perfect. All characters give great performances, and we can't forget the great direction from the master Chinese director himself, Zhang Yimou. The scenery takes us through the rural side of China, as well as the poor side. The musical score helps build all emotions, and impacts greatly at the touching and moving ending...This is definitely a magnificent film, memorable, and meaningfull. I strongly reccommend this movie for all willing to learn of life.
Rating:
Summary: Enormous sweetness
Review: It is really unbelieavable sometimes, how a truly simple story can be transformed into a strong film. Zhang Yimou did it again!
When watching this film, listening to this beautiful music I felt in love with this calm and pure world, long lost in the hectic life of our "western civilization".
Pure - unaffected acting, some time it seems like a documentary.
Zhang Ziyi confirms her acting talent. See this movie and feel the calmness, the love, the Aristotelian "catharsis".
Highly recommended.
Rating: 
Summary: She can flirt with me, any day.
Review: The prologue and epilogue, set in the present, may be a little tedious--the black & white footage does not help. However, the core of the movie, which is a flashback to a Chinese village in the 1950's, and is gentle and lively--and in rich color. Zhang Ziyi as the exuberant young girl trying to gain the attention of the new schoolteacher is simply wonderful (it is hard to believe this is the same actress who played the dour whirlwind in 'Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon'). Here's one for my personal video library.
Rating:
Summary: As Of Now, The Best Film Of 2001!
Review: "The Road Home" is made by my favorite foreign director around today! I don't count Bergman because he just writes now. But Zhang Yimou, the director of this film, always manages to put such beauty into his films. Probably best known for films like "Not One Less", "Shanghai Traid", "Raise the Red Lantern", & "To Live". "The Road Home" follows in his tradition of making powerful, beautiful films.
I've seen about 60 films this year, and I know that's not a lot when compared to how many critics see. But, I think it's a pretty large amount when compared to the amount that the average movie fan goes to see. From everything I've seen this year, nothing has been able to express the passion of this film! No film has been as tender, poignant, & embarcive as this. I hate to admit this, for it's not really manly, but, I was misty by the end of the film. I've not seen a film that could do that to me in a long time.
Many bash this film saying, there's no story. It doesn't move. There's no point to it. How wrong they are. Of course there's a story to the film. I was watching something all that time lol. It's a very innocent, simple story that captivates it's audience. A young man, Yusheng (Honglei Sun) goes back home after hearing about the death of his father. A local school teacher, who helped build the very same school where he worked. His mother is grief-stricken, understandablely. There's an old tradition that after one dies, one must be brought back to where they lived. Only they must be brought back by foot! Other's must carry the coffin so the person's soul will remember how to get back home. Yusheng mother, will not give in. She demands that the townspeople follow the old tradition. Afterwards, Yunsheng starts thinking about his mother and father, he sees a picture of them taken the day of their marriage. It makes him think about the story of how they met. And, this is where the film starts to take off. Granted, it sounds simple, but, please don't dismiss it. Just think of "The Bicycle Thief". It takes a simple story, and does something with it, many films, no matter how complex their story-line may be can do. "The Road Home" is the same way. It may sound simple, but, give it a chance, trust me, you'll be impressed.
I really, really love this movie. Everything about it seems to fall together in perfect pieces. The music by Bao San is charming. It hits all the romantic and dramatic spots it needed to. The script based on the book "Remembrance" written by Shi Bao, as is the script, is truly wonderful. It carries such heart with it. It makes us care about the characters so much. We can't help but get drawn into their lives. The film did more in 89 minutes then any Hollywood film I saw this year! I know, many people dislike having to read the sub-titles on these type of films, but, please, make an effort to see this one. I think this film will stay with me for a long,long time. p.s.- This film has already won and been nominated for many awards including; a Sundance Film Festival Award, a Bodil Awards, and a Berlin International Film Festival Award.
Rating:
Summary: The Greatest Movie ever Made!!
Review: Timeless and beyond anything the depths of this world could give you if you truly believe it. Beauty displayed not of this world. Genius and triumpic!...
Rating:
Summary: A Poem for the Eyes, Heart and Soul
Review: If I could have 4 wishes... 1) I would write stories that would stay with people forever.
2) Zhang Yimou would be the director.
3) Zhang Ziyi or an actress her caliber would star.
4) San Bao would write the soundtracks. I knew I would like this movie when I saw the trailer, especially of the funeral procession in the snow. It had all the right ingredients...
*A young (illiterate) woman in a remote village who lives with her blind mother in a place with no indoor plumbing
*A new teacher who has no idea what's in store for him
*Symbolic gestures and icons of love.
*An unimaginable series of separations that would test anyone's resolve, especially someone who invested so much of herself in someone else. Zhang Yimou knows exactly what matters and sets his and our focus on these things. He has become a director whose movies I'll watch on virtue of his name alone. This movie was about someone who operated from her heart. On the teacher's first absence, Zhao Di takes it upon herself to make small repairs to the classroom. This scene captures the essence of "The Road Home." I also really enjoyed how the story brings together a young, illiterate woman and a teacher from the nearby city thanks to random choices. I'm sure during the "happily ever after" part of their lives together, he would have made her his oldest student. I enjoyed how the film portrayed that Zhao Di's determination never left her, even as an older, wiser person. It was almost hard to not chuckle at her single-minded determination to wait on the road in spite of her fever...especially after her mother's reaction. (She also pulled a slightly different version of this "bonehead scheme" scene perfectly in "Crouching Tiger") I also enjoyed when Zhao Di put herself into her weaving to temporarily forget things. Zhang Ziyi has an almost unnatural talent for making us realize that there's a lot more going on in her character's head and for making her characters authentic. She is one of the most effective communicators on the big screen of any age or era. People from my generation need to see more movies that portray romance this way. Zhao Di and the teacher hardly ever make contact, yet their interactions are more powerful than any I've seen from Hollywood. How we spend our time and with whom is the most important investment we'll ever make. This is the kind of movie that you don't want to wash away with anything else for a while. The soundtrack will ensure that never happens.
Rating:
Summary: great looking dvd
Review: Great story, fantastic looking dvd, what more could you want? My only gripe is with the language tracks. Where's the cantonese or english dub? The only tracks available are mandarin and french? FRENCH? Not even cantonese subtitles! You may have guessed I'm Chinese/Cantonese. The picture looks excellent with rich colours and no scratches and the sound is very good too.
Rating:
Summary: When is a piece of fluff not a piece of fluff?
Review: When is a piece of fluff not a piece of fluff? When it's directed by Zhang Yimou. In any other hands, "The Road Home" would have been so light and breezy you would barely have noticed it was there. Fortunately, the credits say "Directed by Zhang Yimou," and that makes all the difference in the world. The story is very, very simple. Upon the sudden death of his father, a young man returns to the small Chinese village where he was born. As he attends to the details of the funeral, he recalls the often told story of his mother and father's romance, and we flash back 40 years to a simpler day. The romance is hardly awe-inspiring. It is less of a romance than a silly young girl's (Di Zhao, played by Zhang Ziyi) silly crush on the new, young village school teacher. Di is soon finding any and all excuses to walk past the school house to hear the young man's voice and, perhaps, catch his eye. That's it! Sorry! If you want more of a story, it isn't there! But oh, what Yimou does with this simple story! First of all, he lays on the sentiment. Simple objects such as a hair clip, a broken bowl and a red cloth become the most important objects in the world. Secondly, Yimou frames each shot with incredible
beauty and detail. The shot of Di leaning up against the door frame as the school teacher drops by for his first visit is unforgettable. Most notably, Yimou has an unfailing instinct with his actors. In Raise the Red Lantern" a large percentage of the story is told through Gong Li's facial expressions. In "The Road Home" most of the movie seems to be told simply by watching the eyes of Zhang
Ziyi. (And what lovely eyes they are to watch!) As with any Yimou movie, his attention to detail makes you feel as though you have actually been to China and you now understand these people and their particular place and time. And as with any Yimou movie, as it ended I found myself already impatiently
awaiting the next cinematic voyage he will take me on.
Rating:
Summary: New direction for Zhang Yimou
Review: I have long been a fan of Chinese film director Zhang Yimou and "The Road Home" is very different from the older movies with Gong Li that he is typically known for, like Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern. This movie is very sweet and Zhang Ziyi, of course, is beautiful. It is a far cry from the themes of hopelessness, loss, and patriarchal society that dominates Zhang Yimou's earlier films. The images and colors in the film is fantastic and really adds spark to the simple love story it tells. I first saw this movie on a VCD that my dad brought from a trip to China. He also brought two other recent Zhang Yimou films, "Not One Less" and "Happy Times," which I also strongly recommend. They are very different from "The Road Home" but equally enjoyable.
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