Youth

"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!

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.

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 the latest work by Xiaogang Feng, a well-known Chinese Director with many domestic box office success and ambitious effort to make serious movies. The screen play was written by the talented writer Geling Yan, whose life trajectory closely paralleled with the story line. Both Feng and Yan shared the experience of living and working in the Military Cultural Troupe, a special unit serving the Military with 'artful' performances but later largely disassembled as the Chinese society moved to market economy in 1980s. The majority of the stories in the movie occurred from mid-70s to early-80s, which marks a historically critical period of modern China and the youthful years of a generation who are around 60 years old now.

The well crafted production settings, costumes and makeups immediately reset the clock for 40 years and bring you to the late stage of Culture Revolution. The signature dance moves, songs, body gestures, and use of words strongly evoke one's memory of that time; such rich cultural message unfortunately may be lost to western audiences. The nostalgic sentiment has overpowered many (millions) Chinese viewers for sure. In a sense, it was the Age of Innocence when the youths were largely shielded from dating and selfish motives. However, as the plot developed, conflict arose, things got escalated and people's fate changed. The movie is unpolitical and intends to tell the story of a group of regular young people limited by their historical environment. Most of the female leads are new faces on screen, whose performance was refreshing and enjoyable.

Overall, the cinematography was done in a lively manner with nicely coordinated music scores. The movie was told from a young lady's perspective, thus may feel a bit on the feminine side for some. To me, it is beautifully done and quite an achievement.