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You don't see too many gorgeous, heartwarming romances with a G-rating slapped on them, but that's exactly what Zhang Yimou's The Road Home is. No spotted puppies or animated Rugrats here; just the story of love blossoming in the hearts of two young people in a bleak mountain village in North China.
Home is narrated by Luo Yusheng (Sun Honglei), who, as the film opens, has just been called back to his hometown of Sanhetun because of the sudden death of his father, who was the town's schoolteacher. Yusheng explains that he, like most of the village's other young men, have left the rustic hamlet for work in larger cities, and this is the first time he has returned in years.
When he arrives in Sanhetun, Yusheng is approached by the town's Mayor (Chang Guifa), who delicately explains the unusual situation. Yusheng's father, Changyu, is still in the hospital, which is located miles and miles away through the mountains. His mother, Zhao Di (Yuelin Zhao), who has been grieving in front of the schoolhouse since her husband's passing, insists the town follow an ancient funeral custom in which the casket is carried, by hand, into town by the village's men (presumably so he never forgets his way home).
Yusheng unsuccessfully tries to get his mother to change her mind, and as she begins to weave a traditional funeral cloth on her rickety loom, he thinks about the stories he's heard throughout his life about the atypical courtship at a time when arranged marriages were the standard. Home then flashes back to 1958 for the following hour, where we see the young, beautiful Zhao Di (Zhang Ziyi, Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon) pursue Sanhetun's handsome new schoolteacher, who, of course, is Changyu (Zheng Hao). The shift from present to past is done nicely, as the latter shows Di at the loom preparing a special red banner than will adorn the village's new school.
As Changyu and the locals build the school, Di carefully prepares delicious dishes to take to the work site, with hopes her dreamboat will be the one to devour her eats. She even begins to use a long abandoned well just because it brings her closer to the school and Changyu. Initially, most of Di's actions go unnoticed, but he eventually comes around when it's her turn to host Changyu for dinner. There's the potential for some tragedy and heartbreak, but we already know they end up together, so the concern is fairly minimal.
Yimou breaks the formula typically found in flashback films by having the 15-minute, present-day bookends shot in black and white, while the "meat" of the film is in color. This works nicely in the transition toward the end of the film that shows the bright red banner in the brand-new schoolhouse becoming a dingy gray banner in the decrepit schoolhouse. It's also interesting to see the complete lack of change between 1958 and present-day Sanhetun (the only noticeable upgrades are the two Titanic posters on the wall of Yusheng's old house).
Home won an Audience Award at this year's Sundance Film Festival, as well as a Silver Bear at the recent Berlin fest. Yimou keeps things moving at a nice pace (the film barely cracks the 90-minute mark), even though there are decently sized stretches with no dialogue. The film is beautifully photographed (by Yimou's Not One Less' Hou Yong) and gorgeously lit, which you'd expect from a director who used to be a cinematographer. Like Less, Yimou uses a cast made up largely of non-actors (Ziyi actually filmed this before Crouching Tiger). The only major complaint is Home's constantly swelling score, which becomes increasingly annoying throughout the picture.
1:31 - G
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