Fang hua

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 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.

In the Youth, you can listen and see: Brilliant revolutionary songs, passionate speech, red, rhubarb and green screen tone, green military uniform, green school bag, twist braid, Prairie female militia and Yi Mung Song the dances with a distinct characteristic of the times, the revolutionary slogan, Portrait of Chairman Mao, Quotations Chairman Mao. These are a lot of memorable memories for 50s, 60s and 70s audiences who feel familiar and cordial. For 80s, 90s and 00s, these audiences would feel that the good are not well rewarded and the bad are not punished.

The manifestation of sentient beings of the art troupe reflects the apparent social existence of the class or hierarchy, the marriage between families of equal social rank and the insidious side of complex human nature. Lin Ding Ting can be an example.

Lin Ding ding: heartless and egoistic individual

As a solo with a natural voice in the art troupe, Lin Ding Ting was sought after by male soldiers. She also understood how to seduce a good man among these suitors and get benefits from them. In the movie, Liu Feng, an army doctor and a military photography officer were secretly pursuing her. Lin Ding Ting was hugged by the army doctor and got painkillers easily from him, which was a shortage of drugs at that time. Lin Ding Ting was also hugged by the military photography officer and was photographed around by him when shooting outside. Therefore, she has her own exclusive photographer, carrying a camera with the beat. Moreover, she ate the can of food from him, which was rare in that time. When shooting target, Lin Ding Ting muzzled at the military photography officer, almost causing accidental injury. At that time, there were clashes between two pursuers, Liu Feng and the military photography officer. Liu Feng accused the officer that the position was wrong. And the officer suspected Liu Feng too dull. This thing proved that both were jealous of each other.

Like all the female soldiers in the art troupe, Lin Ding Ting, who was sophisticated and beautiful, enjoyed Liu Feng's help, care and ambiguity. But Liu Feng and Lin Ding Ting, a combination of carpenter's son and artist's daughter, cannot catch on due to no equal in social status. However, in Liu Feng's mind, as the most beautiful man as the Lei Feng-style in the art troupe, he could deserve the most beautiful goddess of the whole unit. It's a stupid idea! When the only time Liu Feng summoned the courage to show Lin Ding Ting the love and touch her, she has no obvious rejection tantalizing passivity, as if she had been flirting with the army doctor or the military photography officer. Usually at that time, Lin Ding Ting could not only enjoy the pleasure of being loved by everyone, but also refused to give a clear and definite answer. When Liu Feng hugged her, she showed no fierce resistance or conflict. Unfortunately, the time when Liu Feng hugged Lin Ding was caught by two other comrades. After being seen, Lin Ding Ting is more like a panic. It was not because of Liu Feng's embrace, but because Lin Ding Ting was afraid that she would be put on the wrong side of the hat, fearing that his reputation would be destroyed. So when she returned to her bedroom, she would cry so badly. Lin Ding Ting sobbed: Anyone can, but Liu Feng can't, because who let him be a living Lei Feng! She concocted a lot of imaginary things and created plenty of nonsense. Later, she took the initiative to find the leader in the art troupe. And then, Liu Feng was portrayed by Lin Ding Ting as a creepy man who wanted to solve her underwear buttons. The tragedy began. A living lei Feng would instantly become a rogue vigilante.

Lin Ding ding's dream was to marry into a good family. How could she have seen much in a Lei Feng who just knew only to help others? She knew exactly what it meant to Liu Feng, but it didn't matter in her own future. Lin Ding Ting deemed that her reputation could not be destroyed. Therefore, she did not hesitate to destroy Liu Feng's future to save herself.

This kind of girls is good at observing changes in the environment and knows when to make what decision. Once deciding, they go to action. Therefore, after the art troupe disbanded, Lin Ding Ting was no hesitation in deciding to marry abroad. She must have married an overseas Chinese who had never met before and was only a blind date.

As a matter of fact, people like Lin Ding Ting are more common in reality. They look harmless on the surface, but inside they are essentially self-serving people. They always have clear goals in mind. Do not care about the process, only care about the results. To achieve their own purpose, they can do nothing. To maximize their interests, they can abandon all principles. Therefore, if you meet someone like Lin Ding Ting, be sure to guard against them!

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.

A sprawling story taking place during and after the Cultural Revolution in China mainly following three characters of a theatre troupe (Liu Feng, He Xiaoping, Suizi).

The film does not directly condemn nor does it fully praise this tumultuous dark time in Chinese history. Instead, as the title intimates, the film focuses on the relationships between the young troupe members and the transition from youth to adulthood. In this way, this film reminds me of Jiang Wen's, "In the Heat of the Sun".

The scenes of the girls bullying the main character and new member, He Xiaoping, rang with such authenticity and personal pain. The stories of Suizi and Xiaoping's fathers that were "rehabilitated" are heartbreaking as well. This might be because these scenes may have come from author Yan Geling's personal experience (she was also a dancer in a performance troupe). I personally appreciated the female perspective, though the film's gaze is somewhat male, (director is Feng Xiaogang), it felt as if I was peeking behind the curtain of the women's locker room, not for perverted reasons, but to see another world of intrigue I'm unaware of.

The more epic scenes of war did not ring as true and seemed a bit overly patriotic too be honest. I wonder if the film did not have to go through Chinese censors how it might've been different.

Regardless, the film does not shy away from the failures of the Cultural Revolution and portrays the horrors of war vividly. Be careful, there are a lot of shaky camera, handheld, steadicam movements throughout the film, so if you get close seats, you're likely to get motion sick.

As the film ends, the tone of the film begins to regain it's authenticity particularly in the relationship between Liu Feng and Xiaoping. Their story is equally tragic yet hopeful and full of love. When Xiaoping finally asks Liu Feng her question, it's sweet and heartbreaking.

The film worships those young carefree days, at times too excessively with it's montages and emotional music, but at the same time it shows how much heartache is experienced during those times. That's part of the beauty of youth, that heightened sensitivity to the whole spectrum of emotion: love, anger, longing, hope. It may be why I'm also kinda over it.

Some middle sections of the film meandered and I felt could've been shortened. Overall, I enjoyed following the story of these youth and seeing the mishap of their relationships.

Side Note: Watching this film, I realized how alien this world was to me. Growing up in the U.S., I've also felt certain moments of this alienation when watching the movies here as an Asian American. This gives me further inspiration to pursue telling my own personal stories.