TOGETHER
(a film review by Mark R. Leeper)
CAPSULE: China brings us a very personal story of a
young violin virtuoso who goes from his village to
Beijing to make the most of his art. Much of the
story concentrates on his father, an honored chef at
home who takes a job as a restaurant delivery boy in
Beijing to be near the son he so loves. The music
is great, the story is great, and the film is just
excellent in all regards. Rating: 8 (0 to 10),
low +3 (-4 to +4).
One of the surprises of the Toronto Fest this year was the world public premiere of the latest film by Chen Kaige, HE NI ZAI YI QI (TOGETHER or I AM WITH YOU). Kaige is known for previous films TEMPTRESS MOON, FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE, and the underrated THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN. These do not make him a director from whom we would expect so personal and poignant a film, but TOGETHER is consistently surprising.
Based on a true story, it is the narrative of the close father- son relationship between thirteen-year-old violin prodigy Xiaochun (Tang Yun) and his father Liu Cheng (Liu Peiqi). Liu is a popular and successful chef, but his dream is that his son will become a great and famous violinist. Liu decides to take Xiaochun to Beijing for a national music competition and to stay there to further his son's career. The chef takes a job as a restaurant delivery body to support his son in Beijing. Xiaochun takes only fifth place at the competition, but finds a teacher who knows he deserved better and who wants to take him on. Xiaochun has several close and engaging relationships: with his father, with his teacher, and with his attractive neighbor Lily. (Chen Hong, Chen Kaige's wife who also produced the film.) Lily at first looks down on Xiaochun and later sees him as a valuable friend. Lily is really the first woman that Xiaochun has known well. He never knew his mother and was brought up by his father. Just as his father enriches Xiaochun's life, the boy enriches the lives of his teacher and of his neighbor. Throughout runs the theme of what is the proper use of talent. However in China there films have a much greater message of the individual's responsibility to society and so Chen's take is perhaps a little different than it would be in a Western film.
There are, perhaps, unintended messages in this film for a Western audience. We see Lily's apartment. By the film's dialog she supposedly lives fairly well, but the apartment walls are just ugly poured concrete with rough edges. Xiaochun has two teachers in the course of the film. One lives in squalor; the other, somewhat more mercenary, lives in opulence. That affluent teacher, incidentally, is played by director Chen Kaige. The message of over-commercialization of great music is a comment on negative influences of Western society.
Throughout the film we hear the beautiful music that Xiaochun, his teachers, and others play. The Chinese seem to have taken to Western classical music much more than the West has taken to Eastern music. For many the orchestration will be a real drawing card, much as it was with the films SHINE and HILARY AND JACKIE. TOGETHER is a very unusual Chinese film. It has been picked up for distribution by MGM and is scheduled for May release. I rate TOGETHER an 8 on the 0 to 10 scale and a low +3 on the -4 to +4 scale.
Mark R. Leeper mleeper@optonline.net Copyright 2003 Mark R. Leeper
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