Coming Home

I had high expectation for Zhang Yimou's latest film Coming Home, because he finally went back to tell a simple and plain story. So when I heard there was an advanced screening on May 11, I immediately went to see it. However, after watching this 111-minute movie, I was disappointed. To be precisely, I had mixed feeling about the film, I think it is Zhang's best film since House of Flying Daggers, however it is still not a good film. The story is simple, the cinematography is simple, everything is simple in this film, just like what Zhang promised. He intended to make everything simple, trying so hard to drop his color- using style and maintain simple. However, such simpleness is intended, it is not natural. For simple life story movies (Yi Yi, Platform, The World, A Simple Life), the key to be a great movie is if it could give audience a special feeling and a deep theme through its simpleness. And such thing behind its simpleness is the soul of the movie. However, Coming Home didn't achieve that, I can barely feel anything behind its intended simpleness and schmaltz. Its soul is empty. Still, I have to admit, there are some good sides of the film, especially Gong Li and Chen Daoming's amazing acting. Their performances are superb, one of the best performances I've seen in recent years. Also, I love the well-crafted first 10-minute and the sentimental ending. All in all, I appreciated Zhang's trying of going back to the simple and I wish he could continue that. Coming Home may not be a fantastic film but it is still a well-crafted movie with some touching moments. My score: 7.1

(PS: To understand the film ,be sure to learn some background information and the history about the Cultural Revolution. Due to the censorship in China, Zhang can't tell something about the story too obvious, so if you know nothing about that history, you will be confused by something happens in the film.)

I'm was born in early 90s in China. As I grow up, my parents always consciously saving up everything. They do not waste anything, food, clothes, etc..

My mom is good at stitching clothes. Even thou she can afford buying a new pair of socks, she chose to stitch up the worn ones. I thought I'd never understand why my parents are so thrifty, until I watched this movie.

I came to realize what a hard, tough and poor life my parents had went thru after watching this movie. I was even surprised that my parents could actually survived that period of time.

I realized that people don't need that much of things to survive. When my friend and I shopping in mall, talking about cosmetics and luxury bags, and living a wealthy and "fancy" life, while my mother when she was in my age, struggling to live, wearing the same clothes everyday, celebrating her birthday by only eating an egg, running after trains in order to pick up the "coal ball" (trains in old time use coal as the fuel and the coal ball is the coal which was not fully burned, and could still being used for generating a little heat).

This is a great movie to honor that harsh period of time in China's history. And I'm also glad to see that Chinese government now allows people to talk about that period of time and even make a movie about it.

In China, in the early 70s, Lu Yanshi (Daoming Chen), a political prisoner, is released at the end of the Cultural Revolution. When he returns home, he discovers that his wife Feng Wanyu (Gong Li) is suffering from amnesia: she waits every day for the return of her husband, without understanding that he is at her side.

I loved the infinite tenderness that emerges from this film. The rhythm of the film is intentionally slow and we feel a real chemistry between the three main actors (father, mother and daughter). The director Yimou Zhang immerses us in a beautiful love story with the poignant beauty and intense presence of the actress Gong Li, with the extraordinary talent of the actor Daoming Chen who plays soberly in the shadow of his wife, with a neat, delicate and graceful photography.

As a synthesis: behind a slight facade of political pamphlet, a delightful ode of lyricism. 8/9 of 10

Some of the dialog at the very beginning not quite correct and right during the Chinese Culture Revolution. The Chinese people in that darkest ten years torment, many jargon would not be said like what we heard in this movie. If the protagonist is a "Spy" as his daughter called him, he would already have been shot instead of banished to a far away poor farm as a labor. Such labors at that time were tagged as "Anti-Revolutionist" , "The Left Extremist", "Stinking Old Nine" or "The 5th Black Category Member". There were many carelessly written labeling names or words that didn't comply with that atrocious era. I was just amazed how the billion Chinese would let go of such torturous and treacherous when the Culture Revolution lost its goal and suddenly ended after 10 years living hell. Most Chinese are not like the Jewish people who had suffered so much that they would never let it go and so easily forget what their ancestors suffered. But the Chinese people are such weird species with extremely short memory. When every absurd but cruel movement ended, what they had experienced was just like the old Western saying: "Water under The Bridge", they just took it for granted and awaiting the next movement coming up to torture them. This is also explained why the CCP regime still exists so far, and again, the Chinese people are suffering the prison-like deadly control during a lightweight Omicron virus crisis. They are whining, crying and complaining, but I guess when the CCP decides to end the siege, they would immediately forget what they once suffered, just like what their parents and grandparents had suffered during the Cultural Revolution. Living under the iron fist of the CCP, Short Memory, Letting Go and Moving On maybe are all must-have for the 1.4 billion Chinese subjects?

By 'simple pleasures', I don't mean that in any way to reference the Chinese Cultural Revolution, but his return to simple films, about simple people, beautifully crafted, acted, and very revealing about everyday Chinese life (as much as he is able).

Zhang Yimou (Chinese names put the surname first, IMDb doesn't, alas) is arguably one of the best directors of the 20th and early 21st centuries (best known in the West for House of Flying Daggers). He always evokes a magical feeling in me, and I love his technique and precision; almost every frame is a painting. He chose to remain in mainland China and has walked a very thin tightrope in making the kinds of films he has, as he does not shy away from the political situation in China, at least as part of everyday people's lives, which it is, of course. His films are just not primarily about Chinese politics (although his simple, but great early film, The Story of Qiu Ju, is about Chinese bureaucracy, and was indeed banned for a time. The fact that Gong Li, in this film, screams to the prison officials that have come to capture her husband, "What did you do to him to make him want to escape?", turning the blame for his prison escape back onto them, illustrates what their intl fame allows them to get away with.

Gong Li, Zhang Yimou's ex-wife, is, I believe, the premiere female actress in China (and now known worldwide, since the wonderful film, Raise the Red Lantern, was nominated for an Oscar in 1990), with good reason, and an actress of incredible breadth and depth. Even though she has been on many 'most beautiful people' lists, (she is very made up here (or down!)), her craft is everything and I cannot watch her enough. She is lately known here for Memoirs of a Geisha, as the evil Hatsumomo.

I was very, very glad to see Zhang Yimou and Gong Li reunite, professionally, for 2 recent films. They seem to push each other upward and she makes a perfect muse for him.

Ah, the film...(I love telling people about them!). Coming Home is about a couple dealing with and trying to reunite after Gong Li's husband is imprisoned for a couple of decades during the Cultural Revolution in China. She grows progressively ill, which adds to their difficulties, thus the meat of the movie is about their reuniting difficulties. Definitely without a stock Hollywood ending! I was struck by one very incredible scene... It is just a walk across the kitchen by Gong Li, when her husband is knocking at her door. She has been warned severely by the police. This walk seems to take several hours as she haltingly walks across the floor, with all the ramifications, both political and personal, flashing across her face and obviously in her mind. It is one of the most astonishing 20 seconds of film I think I have ever seen, and done without dialog, melodrama or Hollywood artifice.

Zhang Yimou has crafted a fine film here. It is slow, but in a good way, which builds a lot of emotional suspense. Someone said it only covers the last 20-30 pages of the book upon which it is based. As usual, every aspect of the film is top notch and it walks on the edge of the dramatic sword in a perfectly balanced manner. It will go down as another of my favorite Zhang Yimou movies. Be patient, although the tension he creates will keep you pinned, if not a bit frustrated, but that is also the beauty of it, and enjoy! And check out some of his other films!