Title: Seventeen Years (Guo Nian Hui Jia) Country: China Length: 090 minutes Year: 1999 Director: Zhang Yuan Cast: Liu Lin, Li Bingbing, Li Yeping, Liang Song, Li Juan Rating: PG, Contains very brief violence
After the unintentional murder of her stepsister for just five Yuan, Tao Lan is sentenced to jail. Seventeen years later, she was given special pass out to jail to celebrate new year with her family for three days. But her parents have moved away and her old resistance demolished, she is at a lost. With the help of a prison warden, together they go on a journey to search for Taos family, but when they finally found it, Tao refused to enter the house, as her guilt overwhelmed her of killing her stepsister
A simple movie with a simple storytelling, and based on a true story, Seventeen Years deals with guilt and redemption of a family facing with a past that almost cannot be redeemed. This can also be seen in the final scenes where Tao Lan reaches home, the scene where the mother confessed to her husband that she has known all along that her daughter is coming home today, but she did not tell her husband (After all, the killed stepdaughter is the husbands daughter.). In the end of the scene where the fathers thought was opened, where he initially wanted to leave his wife after her daughters return, but changed his mind when he realised that what he really loves is his current family.
The title, Seventeen Years, also drives across two meanings, the years Tao Lan has been in jail for manslaughter, and also the times a girl lost, her most precious times of her life. This is a film that should be watched, if anything, for the simple message it drives across.
(In Chinese With English subtitles)
Note: Seventeen Years was shown on 15th April 2000 at the 13th Singapore International Film Festival. Seventeen Years also won the Best Actress and Best Director for this years Silver screens Awards.
Rated: *** /5
Ratings: *-Forget it. **-Wait for the video release. ***-OK ****-Prepared to be blown away *****-A Classic piece.
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