This is the sixth film made by Zhang Yimou in 1994. Like the previous five
films, it features Gong Li as the lead actress, although the lead actor Ge You
plays a more important role. He was well known for playing comedy roles, but
his serious role in "To Live" has since been praised as his best performance.
Ge You plays Xu Fugui, a young man who's inherited a sizable fortune. He's
also a gambling addict. Despite the protests of his wife Jiazhen (Gong Li) he
gambles away everything he has, including his family home.
Before losing his money Fugui had never worked. Now he turns his hobby into a
career. He entertains people with shadow puppets.
The film is told in episodes from the 1940's to the 1970's. It shows the life
of Fugui, Jiazhen, their children and their grandchildren under the rise of
Communism. Neither Fugui nor his wife are politically motivated. They don't
care who's in charge and do what they're told.
Does the story have a happy ending? Of course not. Zhang Yimou's films are
tragedies.
This time there was a bigger budget, leading to the use of more locations.
Zhang Yimou requested the Chinese army to send him extras, and they gave him
2000 extras. This makes the war scenes spectacular.
I would have given the film five stars, but I found the opening scenes with
the gambling silly. Maybe I just don't understand gambling. How can anyone
throw away everything he has when he has a beautiful wife and daughter at
home? Interestingly, Zhang Yimou agrees with me. In a later interview he said
that he should have omitted Fugui's decline and started the film with his life
as a poor puppeteer.
"To Live" won a series of awards, including three prizes at the Cannes Film
Festival. Nevertheless, it was banned in China, which hardly surprises me.
Zhang Yimou claims to have shown China's cultural revolution neutrally, as it
was, but this includes the bad as well as the good. After the film was
released abroad, Zhang Yimou was barred from making films for five years, but
fortunately this decision was taken back.
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