Huozhe (1994)

Director:

Yimou Zhang

Writers:

Wei Lu (screenplay)
Hua Yu (novel)

Release Date:

December 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry...

Plot Keywords:

Epic | Gambling | Wounded Soldier | Jeep | 1940s

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

You Ge	...	Xu Fugui
Li Gong	...	Xu Jiazhen
Ben Niu	...	Town Chief
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Xiao Cong
Deng Fei	...	Xu Youqing
Tao Guo	...	Chunsheng
Zongluo Huang	...	Fu Gui's dad
Wu Jiang	...	Wan Erxi
Tianchi Liu	...	Xu Fengxia, as an adult
Zhang Lu
Dahong Ni	...	Long'er
Yan Su

Also Known As:

Lifetimes
Living
To Live
Woot jeuk (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

China | Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Germany:12 | Australia:PG | Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:12

Company:

ERA International

Trivia:

This film is banned in China. However, there are a number of pirate copies you can buy on the street.

Quotes:

Little Bun: [playing with chickens] When will they grow up?
Xu Jiazhen: Very soon.
Little Bun: And then?
Xu Fugui: And then... the chickens will turn into geese... and the geese will turn into sheep... and the sheep will turn into oxen.
Little Bun: And after the oxen?
Xu Fugui: After oxen...
Xu Jiazhen: After oxen, Little Bun will grow up.
Little Bun: I want to ride on an ox's back.
Xu Jiazhen: You will ride on an ox's back.
Xu Fugui: Little Bun won't ride on an ox... he'll ride trains and planes... and life will get better and better.

Movie Connections:

Featured in The Turandot Project (2000)

Chinese history on a human scale

Yimou Zhang's "To Live" begins in the late 1940s and covers several decades in the life of Fugui (You Ge), his wife Jiazhen (Li Gong), and their two children. It is an excellent family drama, provoking both laughter and tears, and distinguishing itself from similar movies because of its commitment to showing how China's changing society affects the family. It takes the huge subject of "the first twenty years of Communism in China," and brings it down to a human scale.

Both leading actors nicely portray the way their characters change over the years. At first, Fugui is the stereotypical "callow young man" and Jiazhen the even more stereotypical "long- suffering wife," but the screenplay and actors eventually deepen the characterizations.

The best sequence of the film covers the Chinese Civil War. Wisely, Yimou Zhang resists the temptation to make the movie too epic, and instead focuses on Fugui's personal experiences. The result is a very moving depiction of the human cost of war. In another striking touch, Fugui's hobby is singing with a shadow-puppet troupe. The puppets not only provide an interesting glimpse into traditional Chinese culture, they also take on a symbolic meaning.

After watching "To Live," it's easy to see why the Chinese authorities banned it: there's a lot of tragedy in the film, and in most cases, Communism is to blame. Remarkably, though, Zhang also makes many of the Communist characters sympathetic. For instance, Fugui and Jiazhen's daughter marries an officer in the Red Guards, who is a little ridiculous in his devotion to Mao Zedong, but not a villain. This is in keeping with the overall spirit of "To Live"--humanistic and subtle, instead of bombastic or propagandistic. It's both an important examination of recent Chinese history, and a universal story about how individual human beings manage "to live" in times of hardship. A rare combination, and one well worth seeing.