The Road Home 我的父亲母亲 (1989)

“The Road Home” is a fantastic chick flick, a 3 hankie love story set in a small village in north China sometime during the Cultural Revolution though you’d never know that from the look of the village; it could be any time. It is the edge of nowhere,  surrounded by stunning scenery, gorgeously shot by director Zhang Yimou. The film introduces the beautiful young Zhang Ziyi who lept on to stardom in “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon ” and “Memoirs of a Geisha,” here playing a village girl who falls for the new school teacher who comes to her village.

This is not a movie for people looking for kung fu action or snappy dialogue. But if you are looking for a really good love story, this is it. The film opens with the grown son coming home to the village because his father, the school teacher, has died.  His  father’s and mother’s love story is told in flashback and is as simple as can be — yet it is painfully sweet and if you can watch it without crying, you have no heart. The present day story of the son with his grieving mother bookends the central love story, but is itself equally poignant.

Zhang Ziyi has loads of camera time where her face tells the story and she is brilliant.  Grab some Chinese food, dumplings are appropriate for this one, and a box of tissues and rent it now.

1 Comments

Leave a comment

Name (required)

E-mail (will not be published) (required)

Website

Submit