Tuya de hun shi

In my opinion, I do not believe that Tuya's Marriage is close to the movie I would recommend to everyone. The reason being is that it is slow paced, and does not truly go with any genre that I have dealt with in movies. But, this is why I am so intrigued by it, even though it is slow, it touched on important topics in world geography and people's lives and how they are affected when fate is unkind. I believe that this movie, even though it is not one I would recommend to everyone, is something that truly shows hardships and problems that happen in Inner Mongolia (which is situated in China). This movie does not really fall into a specific genre outside of extreme drama, but it is hard to realize this unless you take time after watching it to ponder the plot and the points made inside it. I think this is a movie more for someone looking to widen their eyes to problems in the world, and that want to understand how it can be in a certain place if tragedy strikes.

I just finished watching Tuya's marriage at the Berlin Film Festival and would rate it 8/10. The movie deals with a herder woman in Inner Mongolia who decides to divorce because her husband is sick and unable to care for her and the family. Since she still loves him, any prospective new husband must promise to care for her and the kids as well as for her old husband.

The plot may sound a bit constructed, but it actually works remarkably well. The pictures are great, and after D. Byambasuren's rather static movies this is finally a drama set in the steppes. The most important thing is probably that the movie takes its subjects seriously. Maybe a bit too seriously at times, but not that seriously that it disturbs the movie.

So, why not giving it 10/10? I missed the Mongolian language. Of course language isn't everything (see Mongolian Pingpong or Apocalypto), but when even the drinking habits are dealt with in greatest detail, why didn't they bother to find a cast that can speak Mongolian? I asked the director about why they used Chinese (that's what you go on film festivals for), but his answer was not really convincing. I suppose some opportunistic reason, like the main actress can't speak Mongolian. Anyway, this only means that you can as well enjoy this movie in a dubbed version.

In short: Definitely recommended.

One of he most interesting films from chines mainland. There are no stunt fights, no killings. This is a human story with human complexities and how a strong woman tries to solve her problem. He enduring love and affections for her disabled husband and her children constitute the main theme. In the background there is another actor, THE LANDSCAPE. Even though the steppe land with brushes and those mountains are harsh to the inhabitants, on screen it looks breathtaking. The film shows how women were doing back-breaking chores(literally in this case) for ages for which man has to be thankful and gracious to her. An absorbing film to watch.

Wang Quanan's fascinating film "Tuya's Marriage" is a quietly powerful story of female reverence, shot on location against the arresting landscapes of deepest Mongolia, with its immensely graceful protagonist being the prepossessing shepherdess Tuya (Nan Yu), caught between a marital loophole and the tightening grip of subsistence when she's forced to look for a new husband willing to take care of her young children and an invalid ex-husband. Austere and gorgeous, Wang's observations on the encroaching capitalism in a rural land so entrenched in tradition and its collective, scuttles from background to foreground when Tuya explores her options and their economic viability. Wisely eschewing a formal romanticism of the arena, Wang takes us deeper into the all-encompassing humanism of the film, when he chooses a cogitative docu-drama approach to the film, a striking reminder that a film's aesthetics are part of its ethos and message. Triumphing at the 2007 Berlinale with the festival's top prize, Wang delivers a film so complex and rich that it finds its tracts in the human capacity for compassion and sorrow.

almost documentary. a woman in Inner Mongolia. her family. and her husband. a delicate situation. and one option. nothing else. result - a film about basic things in a isolated space. taste of sand and dust. a silent heroic existence. beauty of images. drops of humor. and sensation of a lot of pictures by strangers. very familiar pictures. a warm feeling, mixture of compassion and curiosity. a border film between testimony and art product. because the story is present in many movies from East. because the place, language or details are only pieces of a large arena.after its end, the flavor of savage beauty remains in memory. more than social postcard, it is trip in forms of human meetings as form of profound happiness.