The Film to Live - Movie Review Example

Visual Arts & Film Studies The film “To live” Released in the year 1994, the film portrays the problems that ordinary people in China experienced during a challenging time in China’s history. The institutionalization of a Chinese communist party known as the Mao Tse-tung in the year 1949 led to changes in China (Fairbank & Goldman, 2006). These were revolutionary changes affecting the economic, social, cultural and the political lives of people in China. Zhang Yimou, a film director, writer and actor, directed the film giving most of the viewers a chance to learn what happened during such a revolutionary time in China. The film provides some of the best depictions of what happened during the Great Leap forward, the civil war and Cultural Revolution, all of which are a part of China’s history. By providing the viewers with this story through the eyes of a family Yimou (1994) was able to bring out the lives of ordinary Chinese people as they coped with the hard times. While the film portrays the traditional Chinese way of life it is also used to show a large-scale of historical events, presented through the use of symbolism. Historical Events Presented in the Film The Chinese Civil War The first large-scale historical event presented in the film is the Chinese civil war. In the first scenes, viewers learn that Xu Fugui, who is one of the main characters in the film, loses his family property to another gambler Mr. Long’er (Yimao, 1994). In the film, Master Fugui is depicted as habitual gambler who gambles his home away despite his wife Jiazhen or Mrs. Xu, going to get him when he is in the processes of gambling. In the next scene, Jiazhen is seen leaving Master Fugui, who has just lost their property. Master Fugui realizes his mistake and decides to reunite with his family but now as a poor man. He decides to start a shadow puppet troupe as his new means of earning an income for his family. This is evidenced in the scene where he borrows money from the gambler who won but is only given one of his old possessions, puppet props. As Master Fugui and his friend Chunseng continue with the street performance of the puppet troupe, viewers are taken to another scene where the film shows the Chinese Civil War taking place (Yimao, 1994). It is at this scene that Fugui and his friends have to stop as commanded midway by soldiers through their performance. The soldiers were supporters of the republic of China or the Kuomintang were fighting the communists (Fairbank & Goldman, 2006). This is noted in statement by one of Fugui’s friends after they were captured. In this scene, viewers are able to learn about the effects of the civil war on ordinary people like Fugui and his friend Chunseng (Yimao, 1994). In another scene, Fugui is also seen looking around and one soldier approaches him asking him if he was thinking of running away. The soldier informs him that if he ran away, he would be shot down by soldiers from the nationalist movement. The soldier also informs Fugui and his friend that soldiers from both sides of the war were everywhere, symbolizing that the fight against the war for the ordinary man was impossible. Fugui and Chunseng are also informed by the soldier that if they do not fight the Reds they were likely to fight the Kuomintang (KMT). The Reds were the army of Workers and Peasants that was founded by the Communist Party of China (CPC) (Fairbank & Goldman, 2006). These two groups were at war with each other and ordinary people like Fugui and Chunseng had to take a side or get killed (Yimao, 1994). From this scene, it is evident that most families at this time were negatively affected by the war. The scene where Fugui and the soldier seem as if they are freezing is also symbolic. Fugui is seen asking why the wounded were making sounds when freezing because there was no one to look after them. Even when Fugui manages to escape and go home, he finds his family alive, but a daughter who could not speak and hear because of a fever. Long’er, the gambler is also shown while he is being taken away, because he was a rich man and this was not in line with the communists’ view of how people were required to live (Yimao, 1994). All these were symbols employed by the film’s actors to show the negative effects of the civil war as China transformed into a communist state. The Great Leap Forward After the Chinese Civil War, the film presents another scene where Fugui’s family is setting up communal kitchens. The film then moves to several other scenes used to show the effects of communism in a state. These include the scene where Fugui serves people spicy noodles through the communal kitchen. This is symbolic because it shows how the lives of Fugui and his family as ordinary people changed from looking after their own needs to serving the needs of other people. Halfway through the film, there is a scene where the local town chief is shown walking through town while telling all people to donate their scrap metals, particularly iron. The chief tells them that their scrap metal donations would be used to produce steel and other weapons (Yimao, 1994). For example, in the scene is says that the communist party had managed to make steel that would be used in making three cannon balls. The weapons were necessary for attacking Taiwan, which was not in support of the establishment of a communist state. These are events that describe China’s historical event known as the Great leap forward (Fairbank & Goldman, 2006). It was a time when the CPC wanted the whole country to change from an agrarian economy to one which was industrialized (Fairbank & Goldman, 2006). CPC’s leader Mao Zedong wanted all the peasants such as Fugui and his family to melt down their cooking pots and pans to make high-grade steel. The peasants and farmers were also encouraged not to grow food and instead focus on melting scrap metal. This is evident in the scene where the Chief congratulates Fugui and Jiazhen because their contribution of scrap metal was helpful citing that their production target was at is maximum level (Yimao, 1994). The use of a steel sample that the chief had brought for the people in town to see was symbolic because it provides a clear view of the communists’ party’s actions during this time. When the chief said that the three cannon balls that were made would be enough to bomb Chiang-Kai-shek’s household, the statement symbolizes the depth of the war between Taiwan and mainland China 60 years ago (Yimao, 1994). Cultural Revolution As the story moves from the effects of the “Great Leap forward” to another historical event, the Cultural Revolution, viewers are shown a town that is in transformation. For example, there is a scene where the people in town are shown singing that Mao Zedong is dearer than a mother and a father (Yimao, 1994). This is symbolic statement showing that the people were required to look at their leader as a mother and father figure and those opposed to it are the movement’s enemy. This symbolizes an oppressed nation. In another scene, the chief is also shown advising the Fugui family to burn the puppets because they are a presentation of people who are against the communist revolution. This is a cultural revolution because people have to stop using traditional means of earning an income and embrace new ways that the communist party suggested. Fugui’s daughter Fengxia who is now grown into a woman burns the puppets. In another scene, viewers are shown Fengxia getting engaged to a Red guard from the movement (Yimao, 1994). From this scene the film shows Chunseng returning to his friend Fugui to attend the Fengxia’s wedding and apologize for being a capitalist. The Fugui’s family was that of a communist whereas Chunseng was a capitalist. This is a symbolic scene because its aim is to show that because of communism, most people lost their family members, seen when Fugui’s son Youqing dies and friends turn against each other. These were the effects of the cultural transformations that people faced when presented by two warring sides that is the Communist China and the Pre-communist China (Fairbank & Goldman, 2006). The messages presented through symbolic lines and messages were political. For example, in one of the last scenes, there is symbolism evidently shown when the doctor was given seven buns because he was hungry (Yimao, 1994). This was the doctor who was required to guide Fengxia through her childbirth. From this scene, it is evident that there were no doctors in the hospital because most of them had been seen to camps as punishment for being over-educated. This was the only doctor who was available, but he was too hungry to work. Hence, after eating the seven buns with water, it is apparent that the buns expanded, perhaps due to their yeast content. As a result the doctor becomes semiconscious and does not operate on Fengxia. Fengxia dies from blood loss while giving birth (Yimao, 1994). As the scene comes to an end, it is clear that the message is that Fengxia died as a result of the overeating of a doctor who was hungry because being punished by the communist party. The death of Fengxia and the doctor’s overeating are symbolic because they convey the message that Communism was the reason so many people died in China. What the Presentations say about the Director’s attitude Through the use of several historical events which all occurred in China decades ago, the film juxtaposes all the conditions that the Chinese people faced and all that happened when the transformation was taking place. Yimou (1994) focuses on the ordinary and poor people in early China, whose lives were negatively affected by the communist party. The film is a powerful tool that the director uses to show that Communism was not an effective political system because all it brought was poverty and death as evidenced in the film. References Fairbank, J., & Goldman, M. (2006). China: A new history, second enlarged edition. Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press. Yimao, Z. (Director) (1994). To live [DVD]. Available from http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110081/?ref_=nv_sr_2 Read More