My thoughts from 2001:
Director Zhang Yimou:
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Chinese society has changed so fast that most people feel lost. The Chinese cinema reflects these developments. These days the market economy dominates everything and our cultural life has lost its way. Really vulgar commercial films dominate our screens. Directors who would once have been ashamed to make such films are nowadays proud to put their names to them. It's a sad state of affairs, and I find myself wondering if people really like such films. I made my last two films Not One Less and The Road Home as a reaction against the current tendencies in Chinese cinema, against the logic of the market. I wanted them to be simple, immediate and anchored in reality. I believe the public will accept them, since they address the viewer with real feelings and emotions.
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Hmmm, those words sure sound familiar as it echoes some of the gripes in this Forum about this year’s summer blockbuster films.
The Road Home tells the story of Luo Yusheng, a city businessman who returns to his home village in North China for the funeral of his father, the village teacher. His elderly mother, Zhao Di, insists that the body of his father be brought home from the hospital in a neighboring city in a coffin hand carried by men instead of driven in order that in her own words, “he (the dead) can always find himself (themselves) home”. Since it was a snowy winter, Yusheng is afraid that he might not find enough men to perform this task as most of them have left the village to work in faraway cities.
It is during this time that Yusheng reflects and thinks back about the stories he has heard about his parents’ courtship. Zhang Ziyi plays the young Zhao Di in an extended flashback that chronicles their first meeting and falling in love with one another.
The Road Home is a simple story about love, family and tradition but very rich in its themes about learning, dying, being alone, and people’s attitude towards respect and veneration. It is fully realized by Zhang Yimou’s (
Raise The Red Lantern) very poetic approach to the subject matter.
The film has stunning cinematography. The use of black and white photography for the present day scenes while using color for the flashback scenes, which includes cascading landscapes, is very rich and stunning. Yimou also gets a lot from his ensemble cast half of whom are non-professionals. Zhang Ziyi’s performance is very noteworthy. A majority of her scenes involve unspoken words and relies heavily on her facial expressions and bodily movements to convey her emotions. And she able to bring out those emotions more than words can ever say with such grace and intensity.
In the early part of the film, one can’t help but notice the
Titanic posters that grace the walls of the 60-year old woman’s (Di’s) house. I wondered the significance of these posters, which seemed odd to be in a Chinese film such as this one. Movie critic Joe Baltake explains:
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Zhang Yimou has said that this film is his response to the "vulgar commercial cinema" that currently reigns, and in the spirit of corrupt moviemaking, he's included an example of product placement. If you notice, on one of the walls in old Zhao Di's house hangs a poster advertising James Horner's soundtrack album for the movie "Titanic." Of course, this old woman would never have that poster in her house. It's a comment by Zhang on the crass stupidity of product placement, which is typical of today's "crass commercial cinema."
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While it may be intended as cynical humor, I thought such placement was distracting, an intrusion and clearly out of place. Fortunately, it occurs early in the film that one forgets about it after a while.
The Road Home is such a beautiful and moving film that I am glad there are still directors these days that take these kinds of risks albeit a foreign one. This is what cinema is all about. It is a film with quiet intensity that explodes visually and emotionally with the latter happening in the final moments of the film.
In Mandarin with English subtitles.
~Edwin
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