The Road Home
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Movie Reviews of The Road Home
Movie Review: Quite Possibly the Best Movie I've Seen This Year
Summary: 5 Stars
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!Movie Review: A simple and beautiful story
Summary: 5 Stars
This is a simple plot well rendered. "The Road Home" consists of a frame story, filmed in black and white, and an embedded story (a story within the story), filmed in vivid colour. It is a love story between an illiterate young woman and a village teacher, set in a superbly filmed background - it really makes you want to travel to China. It is a story of great love and rare devotion of a woman to a man. Though only a simple village girl, the heroine achieves her goal through sheer dedication and perseverance. Despite the straightforward plot line, the film is full of symbols, such as a food bowl, a hair pin, a grandmother who wept when her husband died until she became blind, and the road home itself. I found the many references to popular Chinese beliefs and superstitions fascinating, I've learnt a few things about Chinese culture, and I was left with a desire to explore more about it. The film also has a political dimension, not letting us forget that the love story is set in the years of the Cultural Revolution in China, and as a result we get a poignant reminder of how political issues can interefere with normal everyday life.
The cinematography is superb - the fields, the heroine's clothes, the food, the bowl, are filmed in vibrant, eye-pleasing colours, and enchant the eye.
This film is a gem, and I wholeheartedly recommend it!
Movie Review: A Simple Innocent Love Story
Summary: 5 Stars
"The Road Home" is a moving story of innocent love between Zhao Di (Zhang Ziyi) and the new local teacher from the city. Zhao Di falls deeply in love with the teacher at first sight. She does everything she could, in a shy way, to catch his attention. When he notices her , he also develops a crush, but their romance is cut short when he is sent back to the city to settle some problems with the government. Zhao Di gets incredibly depressed to the point of her hallucinating, hearing his voice at the local school reciting with his students. When the day he was to come back, Zhao Di stands on the road side, in freezing weather to wait for him. He doesn't show and she becomes very ill. Even the illness didn't stop her determination, when she tries to go the city in the middle of a snow storm to find him, but faints at the side of the road where she is found and brought back home. The story doesn't end here, so I urge you to see the movie to find out the outcome. This is Zhang Ziyi's first movie, and it really shows her acting ability and how much she can get into a role. The story is affective and it's not complicating. This is a simple, sweet, and yet powerful love story, where you really feel for the characters involved. This is a movie for all ages. If you like Chinese dramas, this is a good one to see.Movie Review: Meditative Movie
Summary: 5 Stars
Everything is fast these days, Life itself is very fast, these days. I wish we can just sit down peacefully and enjoy a moment's quite elegance. And this is what this movie is. You can't call it slow or boring. That would be disrespectful. Or, I guess you didn't get it. The movie starts in Black and White with a very simple premise. An old woman's determined request to have her dead husband brought home on foot through the road that has been such a part of their lives, so his soul will always know the road home. Simple enough? Actually it turns into a tall order because it is in the dead of winter and there's isn't enough able bodied people to lug the coffin around. But this is just a footnote of the movie. The movie is really about true love that is delicate and unrelenting. It is a classic Zhang Yimou movie. You can tell it is one of his even without seeing his name in the credits. It's like looking at a child and knowing who his parents are. Which is a good thing. It is gorgeous to look at. The setting is photographed beautifully and carefully detailed in every shot. The same attention is also given to the actors, specially Zhang Ziyi. Gorgeous scenery, beautiful actors, a simple moving story and there you have it. You can't help but enjoy this movie.Movie Review: The Road Home
Summary: 5 Stars
It is rare that a movie can transcend language and cultural barriers to convey a story that appeals to the emotions of the viewer. The Road Home is one such movie. Without resorting to a summary of the movie, which is surely repeated elsewhere, the Road Home is a love story. Despite being unable to appreciate the magnitude of the marriage for love concept as opposed to marriage by arrangement, as I am an American, I was still able to recognize the love depicted in this movie. Despite not being able to understand Mandarin/Cantonese, the emotions are clearly conveyed through the actors. One feels for them and roots for them even if there is no blatant antagonist to rouse your emotions. Clearly the movie has touched other viewers as it won the Audience Award at the 2001 Sundance Film Festival and Silver Berlin Bear at the 2000 Berlin International Film Festival. The Zhang Yimou (Raise the Red Lantern and Ju Dou) film bloodlines do not raise unattainable standards or expectations, but may actually raise the standards for his other movies. If Zhang Ziyi is typecast later as a method actor good only for martial arts and sex kitten roles, one need only view this movie to see that they are wrong. You should watch this movie.