To Live

Director – Zhang Yimou

Written by - Lu Wei

I had never heard of this film or of this director before. It is after watching Memoirs of Geisha I searched for Gong Li and her filmography, I came across this film. I read on Wikipedia that it was banned in Mainland China, and that increased my curiosity. I searched for it on youtube and luckily I got the film with English subtitles.

The story starts in 1940s just before the Chinese civil war. The story depicts the struggle of Fugui’s family after he loses his wealth in gambling. Fugui soon realizes losing wealth was blessing in disguise as after the war ‘People’s government ‘ takes away all the wealth from the rich and whoever refused is either imprisoned or shot. The film covers 3 decades and gives a glimpse of Chinese government policies and how it affects a family like Fugui’s. These historical references in the film must have angered the government eventually banning of the film in China.

The film won Grand Jury Prize at Cannes Film Festival in 1994.