Fang hua

The directing, the acting of all the cast, the camera work...they all deserved an 8, because director Fong is still one of the better Chinese veteran directors who has been continuously gave us some more serious and more matured movies, unlike those ones who could only produce brain-dead farces which now seems to be the main stream Chinese movies titled themselves as "Comedy". If you looked at what Director Fong gave us in the past years, almost, I mean, most of them, were worth watching.

I've watched a documentary about how this film was made before viewing this film, about how Fong worked so hard to make this film more like what that pathetic era in China, a huge compound was built according to the old building structures, and how he painstakingly chose the new generation young actors to play those roles, and how he insisted them to live like those people in that era, to think like those old generation, he even insisted them to wear clothes inside out like those people in that era, he paid so much in details including how those young people really went through in a large group, lived, ate, trained and slept together, making these actors he signed up to be exactly like those people. This was a very very serious production under the insistence and persistence of Fong's movie ethics and philosophy, and indeed, he never gave way to any hardship and difficulty when tried to make this film. The preparation of making this film was about a year long, all the actors lived together with him, trained under his production experts. Yes, if by such point of view, this should deserve a high rating.

But if you look at this film from a different angle, it's completely on the opposite. Because it's an ideological propaganda film under the guidance and instruction of the Party. Because Fong and other more liberal directors were then pressured by the government to produce more political correct films instead of either commercial-wise or personal-wise films. The Party needed the young generation to learn something from the past, about how that generation was so obedient, how simple-minded, how easy and pure to be mouth-fed with the dogma of the Communism, how to follow the Party to anywhere and anytime when the Party required them to do, to think and to live. So Fong produced this film to please the Party and won the nods from the high-up Party leaders.

But Fong was also smart enough to use a flexible movie title to allow the viewers to develop freely with their imagination. "Fang Hua" in Chinese, means the best but short Youth, a duration when people is more creative, more passionate but at the same time, more naive to be fooled and brain washed. "Fang Hua" is part of a Chinese four words idiom, the other two words that hidden behind and follow Fang Hua is "Shu Du", i.e., "Completely Wasted". And indeed, if you look back to that ridiculous era and those 10-year long Culture Revolution, twenty millions Chinese were wasted, dead and buried; all the young people were forced to leave their homes and hometowns to the remote, deserted countryside, to the mountains, to the fields of wildness. Those short and the most precious years of human lives were completely wasted and could never get back or live it again. A generation, young and should be so promising, but totally lost. Fong somehow hoped that his viewers would have the least passion and realization of how precious the so-called "Youth" should be well supported, guided and tutored and should not be wasted like those young people in that era that this film portrayed. He did not just want to give you some nostalgia or melancholy deeply emotional and sentimental journey to the past, he also wanted you to realize how young people should not waste their precious but short period of their lives in vain and be fooled by the Party to willingly and unconsciously poisoned by such big foolish words like "Patriotism", "Unconditional Sacrifice for Your Motherland". So as I've pointed out in the very beginning, if from the ideological and political viewpoint, knowing this film was just for the purpose to please the Party, this film only deserved a 0.

For people who don't have similar cultural background, this movie is hard to relate to. This movie was sold out in my city ( Northeast in U.S.) every day. Everyone was crying when watching this movie. Tears came down to my face many times. Best Chinese movie in recent 10 years! Sometimes it is not about techniques, a good movie is supposed to touch people's souls, hearts and minds -- this movie did that to me. Go to the theater and watch this movie!

"Youth" is a beautifully made movie with amazing acting, a decent storyline, and a good rendition of a difficult time in China.

This movie definitely has its share of problems though. There seems to be a particularly large amounts of plot holes and unanswered questions. An example would be the strange event involving the main character's sudden emotional downfall. The editing also seems very harsh in places, extremely noticeable in the war shots. I would also like to say that the English translations in the theaters are quite bad to be bland. As a person who both understands English and Chinese, I was amazed by how debatable some of the translations were. They seemed to find a way to overcomplicate the translations, and make the complicated screenplay look simple.

"Youth" has some great acting from newcomer stars like Miao Miao and Elane Zhong. Xuan Huang gave the best performance in the film as Liu Feng, and Miao Miao surprised me with how much charisma she had playing He Xiao Ping. The acting overall is quite strong, and the actors all developed their characters well despite the small amount of character background. The visuals are nothing short of stunning from the beautiful dancing and choreography, to the breathtaking scenery that is very pleasing to the eye. Feng Xiao Gang also successfully produces a movie that accurately depicts the 1970's of China. This time period is basically untouchable, because of how delicate the government was then, but this movie really does try to show how the living condition was back then. Feng Xiao Gang seemed to have found a way to make a movie about the 1970's in China without offending the government too much.

"Youth" is full of lovable nostalgia and relatable moments. This movie will absolutely tug at your heartstrings and make you look back and treasure the moments of your youth.

I feel that this story is awfully idealized and romanticized and the characters' behaviour carefully curated. There's no way they would be this "pure" as the Asians like to say. Very fit, strong and attractive young men and women thrown together for years and barely any innuendo or liaison, all acting so cute and coy. Even the bullies are mild compared to the stories you hear about hazing.

I also feel this was designed for the box-office and probably made a killing. It's actually done well, but too clean and drawn out and aiming to cover so much scope. I was monitoring the progress bar and I felt the length. It got better for me in the last hour let's say when things get more serious. The war scenes are brutal and the outcomes horrific. When real life comes for our heroes things get serious. And I shed a few tears for Liu Feng and He Xiaoping. These two go through a lot. I guess the melodrama works much better than the slice of life part in the beginning, which I cannot believe for that era of China's history. I'm pretty sure they did not lead such happy and carefree lives in those times. The only hint at hardships is the fact that some of their fathers were political prisoners serving lengthy sentences. And tbh Liu Feng's punishment for that hug was unbelievably harsh. Dingding you jerk... Suizi is too kind to you.

Might have worked better for me a few years ago or even in a different mood but I've seen too many Chinese movies about the post-cultural revolution years to buy into this pretty picture.

Youth is not a good translate of "Fang Hua". In Chinese, Fang sometimes not only means "young", but also means the pleasant scent of new growing lawn and flowers, and it is the first mean of "fang". "Hua" means beautiful and blooming. In fact the character "hua" is interchangeable with the flower in ancient Chinese tradition, but "hua" gives more meaning in describing young ladies.

We see "youth" is certainly not able to cover the full meaning of the movie. The movie is not about war, love or the time of culture revolution and etc. It is about how "young beautiful flowers" grow and what they have become at particular time of China. The protagonists are a group of youth at their age around 15. They are the very pure flowers. The theme is about change of the those "pure flowers" life while the country is facing a huge change. The movie is to recall and cherish.