Gong Li Movie:

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		MPAA Rating: Media: DVD

Editorial Review:
One of the best films of 1994, To Live is a bold, energetic masterpiece from Zhang Yimou, the foremost director from China's influential "fifth generation" of filmmakers. Continuing his brilliant collaboration with China's best-known actress Gong Li (their previous films include Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern), Zhang weaves an ambitious tapestry of personal and political events, following the struggles of an impoverished husband and wife (Ge You, Gong Li) from their heyday in the 1940s to the hardships that accompanied the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. They raise two children amidst a Communist regime, surviving numerous setbacks and yet managing, somehow, to live. Both intimate and epic, Zhang's film encompasses the simplest and most profound realities of Chinese life during this controversial period, and for their honesty, Zhang and Gong Li faced a two-year ban on future collaborations. To Live is a testament to their art, transcending politics to celebrate the tenacity of ordinary people in the wake of turbulent history. --Jeff Shannon

Huozhe [Region 2] Reviews:
Spellbinding...a Masterpiece
2009-12-08 - If To Live's title, as Roger Ebertt says, "conceals a universe," then watching this engrossing, exhilirating and extravagant film surely reveals one. Winner of the Grand Jury Prize and Best Actor awards at the Cannes Film Festival, this epic film from China's most renowned director, Zhand Yimou (Oscar nominee for Ju Dou and Raise the Red Lantern), unveils a world worthy of "a Chinese Gone With the Wind" (The New York Observer)! Set against four decades of Chinese political turmoil, To Live follows the lives of one couple, Fugui and Jiazhen (Ge You and Gong Li), as they struggle to survive their own changing station within the upheaval. As the years go by, bringing bizarre twists, tragic losses...and profound hope, Fugui and his family persevere, striving to reach a calm within the storm so they can do the one thingthe one thing they've always wanted: To Live.

Good critique of the Maoist era in China
2009-11-08 - I got this DVD for my husband. Here's his review:
As a Boston public high school teacher, I purchased this film on the recommendation of my colleagues. The setting starts from the post-Japanese invasion of China, through the Chinese civil war, Communist victory, Great Leap Forward and Cultural Revolution. Through the experience of one family, the film provides a critique of the Maoist policies and personality cult. No wonder the film (and book) has been banned in China. The (beautiful) actress Gong Li provides a compelling portrayal of the riches-to-rags bride and mother in the story. Do prepare lots of Kleenex before watching the film.

A Window into Communist China
2009-06-28 - "To Live" is an outstanding film directed by the talented Chinese director Zhang Yimou. The film chronicles the lives of a married couple, Fugui and Jiazhen, from the 1940s, prior to the Communist takeover, to the 1970s in the aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. Despite many heartbreaking hardships, they remain committed to each other and to their family. The film gave me as a Westerner an instructive introduction to modern Chinese history through the life experience of this family. It also offers a compelling example of marital and familial loyalty.

That this film was made in Communist China is remarkable. In a low-key but pointed manner, the movie is very critical of the Communist Chinese system. A Chinese student friend informed me that the film was banned from movie theaters in China, although one could find it on video/dvd. The film shows the negative consequences of Communism's ceaseless public pressure to accomplish various goals and insure social conformity. Fugui's precious puppets are almost destroyed in the 1950's as part of a community drive to produce steel and are finally destroyed completely in the 1960's to shield the family from scrutiny during the Cultural Revolution. Fugui is fearfully eager to prove that he and his family are loyal supporters of the Revolution given their wrong social origins as members of the upper classes. He frantically retrieves his letter of commendation from the Communist army when his wife nearly ruins it in the laundry. The letter is carefully framed and provides them with important political protection. His fears of not fitting in with Communist society and possibly being targeted as a troublemaker or enemy of the state lead to the death of their precious son. After days without adequate rest because of the mass effort to meet their area's steel quota, Fugui overrides his wife's wish to let their son sleep and miss school because an important Communist political functionary will be visiting the school. In a heavily symbolic moment, the overtired functionary, who has fallen asleep at the wheel, crashes into a wall killing the overtired and also sleeping son. The Communist leader turns out to be Fugui's old friend who had worked with him in the traveling puppet theater and served with him when both were forced into the Communist army. While optimism and benevolent social goals mark Communist society at the time, the system also created an atmosphere of fear and conformity. Fugui and his family, as well as his former friend the Communist bureaucrat are all suffering.

A generation later during the Cultural Revolution, the pathology of Communism has worsened. The fanatical cadres of younger Communists turn on the older generations, including the old Communist leaders, doctors, scientists, intellectuals, artists, and professionals. The requirements for social conformity have only intensified. In the tragic climax of the film, Fugui and Jiazhen's only surviving child dies in childbirth because all the doctors have been expelled from the hospitals by the zealous Marxist students. What was once a mix of hopeful altruism and oppressive force has degenerated into outright insanity.

But Fugui and Jiazhen survive this senseless and entirely avoidable tragedy as they have survived so much already. This is the film's final word--that the strength of the Chinese people, rooted in fidelity to marriage and family--will withstand personal failings as well as large political and social forces, even the anti-human and anti-Chinese Marxist system.

It is well-known how much China has distanced itself from the Cultural Revolution and even the central economic philosophy of traditional Marxism. The Chinese enjoy much greater economic and personal freedom than in that sad era. Yet political and religious freedoms are still greatly circumscribed, as the anniversary of Tianamen Square and the present experience of many Chinese Christians remind us. But the Chinese people, strong and resilient, will continue to seek for that better life that all mankind hopes for.

To Live and to Teach
2009-04-03 - I watched this film when it first came out and again recently. It is a sweeping, yet personal representation of the suffering of the chinese people during the second half of the 20c. Though the film maker needed to disguise the horror of many episodes in the lives of his characters behind humor or overly gentle portrayal, it does not take much to see past this to the real messages of the film. I watched the film with my 7th grade class. They were deeply moved and were given images to attach to abstract historical periods. They loved it. I highly recommend this film to all viewers over the age of 10.

Sobering epic movie
2009-03-03 - This was a very good movie. I had seen it before and second time around it was even better.