Chinese movie ‘To Live’ to be screened at Lok Virsa today

Islamabad

Director: Zhang Yimou

Cast: Ge You, Gong Li

Based on the novel by Yu Hua

Shanghai Film Studio-Era International

Lok Virsa Mandwa Film Club has selected prestigious Chinese film To Live from 1994 for screening at Mandwa Film Club today at 6 p.m.

This is a family drama spread across thirty years. The film takes us back to 1940s in a small village in Northern China.  Gei You, eldest son of a prominent family, is a habitual gambler and he is treated like a young prince and why not! He has lost everything to others.

Family assets are gone. His wife is expecting a child. This is pre-revolutionary 1940s China. Gong Li (the wife) begs him to give up on gambling. Once when everything is gone, the film goes through thirty years with ups and downs. Houses are burnt by Communist forces. Survival comes with heartbreaking moments. In one sequence, when the house is burnt down, somebody points out "Your family's timber was f first-rate". In turn, the hero replies "That wasn't my family timber that was counterrevolutionary timber ".When the time turns sour, Ge You comes down to holding shadow-puppet shows. Wife Gong Li ends up delivering water door to door. If that is not enough, sudden illness leaves their daughter deaf and the son becomes a victim of father's desperation to hide the past as a rich man.

To Live brings out colours, glamour and melodrama at its best. We see through the characters, both anguish and profound tragedy. There is sympathy and pity for people who are treated as pawns in country's progress. When the fifties arrive, we see these characters donating their metal cooking utensils to support steel production. All the pots and pans are taken away and the family ends up eating in communal kitchen.

To Live is about life and life here is full of sadness and tragedies. The Resolution has not come for the glory alone. It has played its part for the family tragedy. Made at a budget of $3.5 million, the film was withheld for local exhibition in China. To Live remains a well-crafted film on modern Chinese history, a deep satire with ironic edges. Director Zhang Yimou (Farewell My Concubine, The Blue Kite) is China's most distinguished and prominent film director. The film was sold for foreign  distribution during production. It won numerous awards (Golden Globe, National Board of Review, National Society of film critics and  BEFTA) and was loved by the press with extraordinary positive reviews.

— aijazzgul@gmail.com