THE ROAD HOME
China, 1999, 90 minutes, Colour.
Zhang Ziyi, Sun Honglei, Zheng Hao.
Directed by Zhang Yimou.
The Road Home is a small film but a fine one. It won several awards at the Berlin Film Festival in 2000.
Zhang Yimou is one of China’s most celebrated directors. After making films like Red Sorghum in the 1980s he had a string of powerful films in the 1990s including Raise the Red Lantern, The Story of Qui Ju, To Live. At the end of the 90s he also made a number of small films including Not One Less. However, in the first decade of the 21st century he had stronger backing from Chinese production companies and made two very significant martial arts films, Hero and The House of Flying Daggers. All in all, Zhang Yimou is a significant world director bringing to the screen the essence of China, its history, its recent history as well as contemporary stories and myths.
The film also introduces Zhang Ziyi who was to have a strong career even at a young age in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon as well as in Zhang Yimou’s films Hero and The House of Flying Daggers. She also began an international career with Memoirs of a Geisha.
The film is framed in black and white, the contemporary story where a businessman returns to his home in northern China to bury his father, the village schoolteacher. He then reminisces about his father’s story, the young teacher and the young girl that he married. This flashback is in bright colour, living colour for powerful memories.
The film thus combines a tender love story as well as the aftermath – and something of the disillusionment as the businessman remembers his father and his father’s urging him to be a teacher. In honour of his father, he teaches school for one day. The film also received the Ecumenical Award at the Berlin Film Festival.
1.The films of Zhang Yimou? His vision, his perspective on the past? His perspective on the communist period in China? Its aftermath? His historical perspective as well as the personal and personalised perspective?
2.The work of Zhang Yimou, this film as a miniature compared with some of his epic films? His skill in communicating characters, stories and themes?
3.The photography: the black and white in the contemporary story framing the flashback? The vivid colours of the flashback? The beauty of the north China countryside, the village, the rituals and ceremonies? The homes, costumes and décor? The musical score – somewhat lush?
4.The title, the reference to Luo Yusheng? His coming home? His journey home and discovering his past? Discovering himself?
5.The setting: the businessman, his success in the city? His piety in returning home? His respect for his father, his mother? His meeting with the mayor? The discussions about the funeral, his mother wanting the traditional funeral? The ritual of people carrying the father’s coffin – for a long journey? Apprehension that there may not be the possibility for enough men to perform the job (the point being made about so many men moving to the city)? The man finding his mother, her waiting in vigil, her being outside the schoolhouse in memory of her husband? His taking her home? The love between mother and son? Her weaving the cloths for the funeral? Yusheng and his recalling the story of his parents, their courtship and marriage?
6.The flashback: the focus on Zhau Di, young, her living with her blind mother? Her caring for her mother? The encounter with Luo, twenty years old? His being appointed the village schoolteacher? The enterprise in the building of the new schoolhouse, the men of the village all helping? The detail of the building and the comradeship? Zhau Di, her weaving the cloth, the cloth to be bound on the rafters of the school? Zhau Di and her attraction for the young teacher? Her visiting the well, the touch of the flirtatious? The teacher and his visiting the young girl, going to the house for a meal, the attraction to the girl? The possibilities for marriage? The sudden being called back to the city, the interrogation? His departure, the gift, the promise to come back? The young girl, her vigil, the story that a teacher was to return? Her being exposed to the elements, getting a fever? Her decision to go to the city, the long walk, the collapse? The return of the teacher, his wanting to see her, his not having permission from the tribunal? The consequences? The separation – two years? His final return? Their marriage, living together for so many decades? A happy ever after until his death?
7.Yusheng, his giving the money to the mayor, the issue of the carrying of the coffin? The surprise on the funeral day, former pupils – in their hundreds – turning up, everyone willing to carry the coffin? His mother reminding the young man that his father wanted him to become a schoolteacher? His respect for his father, his going to the school, teaching the children for a day? In the old schoolhouse?
8.A gentle picture of China, of basic human values, of human nature at its best? The possibilities for joy and happiness? Overcoming difficulties? Respect for the extended family and for the dead? The rituals, the traditions of China?
