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Directed by: Zhang Yimou Starring: Zhang Ziyi With Hero finally coming to American theatres in a few weeks, I thought it would be worth taking a look at some of director Zhang Yimou’s other films in preparation. In the past decade, he’s emerged as one of the premier filmmakers on the international stage, and is the star player of the “Fifth Generation” of the Chinese film industry. The Road Home seemed like an ideal candidate for a review, since it stars Zhang Ziyi, who also appears in Hero, and the upcoming House of Flying Daggers (which hopefully I’ll be seeing at the Toronto International Film Festival this year), also directed by Zhang Yimou. The Road Home opens with a young man returning to his hometown after news of his fathers sudden death reaches him at his new home in the city. Upon arriving, he meets with the mayor who tells him the details of how his father died, and also of his mother’s plans for his funeral, which creates some problems for the small village who don’t have the means to provide the kind of ceremony she wants. As the son speaks with his mother about this, the film moves back into the past, following the time when his parents first met and fell in love. The opening sequence and the final segment of the film both take place in the contemporary setting, and are shown in black and white and a relatively muted filming style (static camera, gentle editing). The middle of the film that is placed in the past, is shown in vibrant color, and features the most visually appealing moments of the film. Aside from stylistic purposes, this makes it easy to recognize when the film moves between time periods, which happens rather suddenly and would be easy to miss without the different visual styles. This movie belongs to Zhang Ziyi. This was actually her debut film, and she makes an incredible first impression. She actually isn’t given a lot to do for a lot of the film other than run around spying on her future husband from a distance, but she has a lot of charm and manages to give a very expressive performance. The way they fall in love seems to happen a little too quickly, but it’s handled well, and doesn’t come off as badly as other “love at first sight” scenarios. Unfortunately, the actress who plays the older version of the character goes in a different direction, and instead of playing a sweet, sometimes naïve character, she is stubborn and borderline irritating. Perhaps the aging process brings about those changes in all of us, but there isn’t any character development to show that transformation. The generation gap between the son and his mother is handled extremely well, as are the changes brought about by the Cultural Revolution. Nothing is really explicitly stated in terms of the changes in society, but a lot of information is communicated through suggestion, which allows for the film to provide some social commentary without becoming derailed or preachy. The final sequence is by far the weakest part of the film. It wraps up all of the necessary plot points, some rather skillfully, but it uses are horrible montage sequence moving back and forth between the young and old Di with melodramatic music in the background to wrap everything up. It was surprising to see something so cliché and desperately appealing to emotion in one of Yimou’s films, and it ended an otherwise excellent film on an artistically sour note. He should have ended it a few moments earlier, even if that meant risking a more bittersweet conclusion. This is a really good date movie, and one of the best non-animated G rated films I’ve seen in awhile (do they even make those anymore?). At the very least, it’s interesting to see Zhang Ziyi get her start in movie-making, and the colorful scenery provides plenty of interesting visuals, though it never reaches the artistic heights of Christopher Doyle’s work on Hero. RATING: 4.0 PROS: Ziyi is excellent, expert filmmaking by Yimou CONS: poor ending sequence, inconsistencies between performances ADDITIONAL INFORMATION: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0235060/
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Jul 31, 2004 04:37
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Very typical romance. Rather trite and tedious, though not without occasional quaint moments of charm. Zhang Ziyi does an awful lot of running in this movie, if you're into watching Zhang Ziyi run. Rating: 2.5
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Feb 8, 2005 21:13
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