Zhang Yimou’s the Road Home
satyam, alex, mp, jay, everyone on this blog – i want u all to see a chinese film (with eng. subtitles) “The Road Home” and i do expect a long piece from satyam and all of you on it….if one is a true cinema-lover – it would be a crime not having watched this movie at-least once in life. One of the purest and most beautiful movies I’ve ever seen in my life.
It is available on youtube in parts and any DVD store would have it ….starring zhang ziyi….. here is a song (rather trailer) of the movie (the song is not in the film)…
I’ve watched “The Road Home” many times….not only it gives me goosebumps when i watch it but I’ve also read hundreds of user-reviews and it is always refreshing how the movie has touched different people from different parts of the world….whether it be some 200+ reviews on IMDB or a staggering 89% on RT….
SATYAMSHOT 
January 19, 2012 at 8:40 AM
I’ve seen this Idea.. not among my favorites within the director’s work but interesting all the same.
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January 19, 2012 at 8:47 AM
thanx for creating the new post satyam…i am now excited to watch Yimou’s other works…which one of his works is the best acc. u?
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January 19, 2012 at 9:18 AM
My favorites are Raise the red Lantern, Red Sorghum (possibly the one I like most because of its use of color), Ju dou. But he’s also done some spectacular action works that are visually great as well — Hero, Housing of Flying Daggers, curse of the Golden Flower.
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January 19, 2012 at 9:26 AM
thnx satyam, i’ve seen hero and HOFD – amazing action films – in fact Hero is a real gem and i’ve watched it many times too! I will watch the rest soon.
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January 19, 2012 at 12:55 PM
Finished watching 1/11. IT opens as a black and white (movie). The dialogues and acting was so real, that for a minute I felt I was watching a documentary. Just started with 2 of 11. Interesting, gripping, moving. Will write more as I watch the rest of the movie. I don’t like subtitles as I cannot focus on the actors and acting (busy reading the dialogues).
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January 19, 2012 at 4:49 PM
The dumplings just fell all over…crying with the heroine 😦
The photography or cinematography is superb. The hero is not particularly handsome. The period, clothes, housing, the loom is captures so authentically.
YAY to my *techy* review.
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January 19, 2012 at 5:04 PM
thanx 4 the live updates diana
lemme give u a handkerchief (& a shoulder to cry on )–hoho
think your review will be something lol
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January 19, 2012 at 8:45 PM
Di 🙂 hope u fell in luv with the movie after watching it fully…..and hope u saved ur tears for many such scenes later on 🙂
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January 19, 2012 at 9:15 PM
I want to do a sattu style “Ha”…but no. Seriously. After that scene, I didn’t really have the need for tissue (alas). The visuals are mesmerizing and that alone is worth watching the movie for. I think seasons captures the mood/situation of the movie very well. I think there was another romantic movie “The Notebook” which had hero AND heroine, love story developing together. I think this particular movie had only lot of heroine but we never get to whole love story (from the hero side)…maybe that was not the point of the movie (or in the book)…but then that (not covering the hero) doesn’t allow the movie to soar (IMO) the way it should/could have. I liked all the period aspects, the baggy-heavy pant suits women wear in chinese villages to protect against cold, hand made shoes, the braided hair style with wool used as clips, the pots and the kitchen hearth, the well and the way water is carried home, the rural settings/buildings in which school is housed etc…very interesting. The one movie that captures longing so passionately and beautifully is (for me) is Brokeback mountain. I invariably cry watching B.M. (I seldom watch movies again even if I like them a lot). B.M is so beautiful that you forget the “gay” part/aspect and completely get focused on love. The last scene always have me in tears!!!
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January 19, 2012 at 2:37 PM
Thanx : may watch this sometime soon( as long as there are subtitles)
Seems interesting
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January 19, 2012 at 7:44 PM
Thank you Idea/Satyam – I have added these to my list of “to watch” films. I am hoping to get these DVDs from my chinese friends over here.
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January 19, 2012 at 8:57 PM
Finished watching. Not sure what to think of this movie (just yet). It starts pretty well but somewhere peters out like a phataka without the baarud in terms of plot. The hero’s presence is hardly there. The love aspect is very one sided but interesting nevertheless. I could. never understand the reason why she falls for the teacher and later on with teaching and school bldg itself, but she just does and in obsessive compulsive way and only the heroine aspect of love is complete focus (we don’t see much of the hero, young or old) of the director/book(?).
Once the girl becomes old woman she is rather manipulative and gets her way, with the villagers, her son (she has to weave the cloth herself; she has to walk the road with body in snowstorm;she has to rebuild the school..but then that is love). It wasn’t too much of tear jerker as I expected (after the bowl breaking-pin loss scene). The best part of the movie are the visuals, so beautiful, almost like a painting, that you forget you are watching a movie. Every little details (the well and the pots etc), the costumes, in the movie, that of the heroine, so authentic that physical aspect of the character (the asymetric figures of our kareena/katrina) are almost absent in the baggy cultural-revolution era clothing (pants worn by women) and totally dominated by face/eye expression of the heroine, hair tied in pigtails with wool, face with very little makeup etc. The whole bowl-repair scene is fab (very authentic and reminded me of India and street repair carts in small towns..must be tough without super-glue back in the day). Since it is adaptation from a novel which I have not read, not sure if book was better or the movie. Not over the top melodrama. Mostly chick flick.
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January 19, 2012 at 9:00 PM
coincidently, the heroine’s name is Di and she is pretty one!!
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January 19, 2012 at 11:02 PM
Di = Zhang Ziyi, if u’ve watched here in crouching tiger hidden dragon kicking ass then this role is total contrast,
Di, try to watch Zhang Ziyi’s act in another beautiful film “Memoirs of a Geisha” – absolutely wonderful!
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January 20, 2012 at 8:08 AM
I *hated* the movie, in contrast to the book. The book was awesome read (though its chick-book). Movie was slow and I was utterly disappointed.
I do like this actress and liked her saucy eyes (act) in CTHD
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January 20, 2012 at 7:08 PM
“I want to do a sattu style “Ha”…but no. “–haha
“coincidently, the heroine’s name is Di and she is pretty one!!”–sho cute…
Diana–your review is more entertaining than this film imo
“The one movie that captures longing so passionately and beautifully is (for me) is Brokeback mountain. I invariably cry watching B.M. “–hmm di- u a guy?
tHavent seen much of japanese/chinese/korean stuff
Sometime back attempted to watch what i thought to be an “auteur” artistic Japanese film–forgot the name
omg–even I found it offensive and too graphic and definitely degradin to females
A sort of reality porn with women being shown as “sex slaves” and made to…
Ok, will stop there !!
Since then never really got around checkign japanese/chinese “films” lol
Hope u all enjoy this di film though
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January 21, 2012 at 11:05 PM
Since watchigng Road to home, I have tried to watch Hero and curse of the Golden Flower. Both I had already seen (and had forgotten names of the movie). Hero on big screen for the visuals were so fab and the movie had lot of *hype* at the time.
Alex: When you watch B.M. do not watch it as man or woman but human. And forget that 2 characters are male (I did). Mostly *such* movies would not *agree* with my (or my sensibilities) but Ang lee has done something wonderful with the story/presentation/actors/direction and I got the “sense of longing” that the character(s) has/have and that his love never got (properly) fulfilled for his entire life due to society (the villain here). And the about “missing”, comes across so well. I didn’t really care for the love scene(s) but they do add *value* or as they say in bollywood “required” by the script! Heath was really-really very good (loved his dialogues) and so was the other dude (with complicated last name gyllenhal or something). The photography/cinematography was awesome for me. I guess the brokeback mountain had me good…lolz
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January 21, 2012 at 11:06 PM
It is a shame that B.M has not been extensively reviewed by our “sattu” 😦
complain
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