To Live (1994, aka "Lifetimes")
cast: Ge You, Gong Li, Ben Niu, Dabong Ni, Fei Deng, Jiang Wu, Tao Guo, and Tianchi Liu
director: Zhang Yimou

Based from the novel by Yu Hua "To Live" is the emotional wrenching story of one family that survives from post World War II China and the communist takeover in 1949 and on into The Cultural Revolution that lasted from the middle '60s-'70s. "To Live" is a beautifully made film (like all Zhang films) that finds common ground in tragic events that build to the core of the film.

In fine examples of earlier films like "Ju Dou" (1989) and "Raise the Red Lantern" (1992), Zhang Yimou explores the mental and sexual hardships of women at the hands of men in pre-communist China. Both films star Gong Li.

Here, Zhang Yimou focuses on the treatment of the Chinese people (man, woman, and child) during Mao's "Great Leap Forward" and "The Cultural Revolution."

The film opens in the very last years of the '40s; Master Fugui (Ge You) is a gambling addict that spends his nights gambling away what he can and always praying for the moment where his luck will kick back in. He is on a serious loosing streak, but cares less as he returns early every morning to a mansion where his grieving pregnant wife Jiazhen (Gong Li) and outraged father await his return.

Fugui warped on trying to win back all that he has lost that Jiazhen takes their young daughter and leaves him only for Fugui to loose the mansion to an arrogant fellow gambler.

Going sober from his gambling addiction, Fugui becomes a commander and sells worthless items on the street until one-day Jiazhen returns with their young daughter and infant son. From here the couple decides to raise their two children as common town’s people and take care of Fugui's ailing mother.

When Fugui asks to borrow money from the gambler he lost to--he's denied, but awarded a set of puppets he can use to put shows on and turn a profit. This eventually leads him and his performing troupe to the KMT (China's Nationalist Party) during the civil war.

When the CCP (China's Communist Party) starts to takeover Fugui's captured and used for manual labor and entertainment.

Returning home, Fugui discovers a different Chinese society than the one he left, as Mao Zedong's "Great Leap Forward" is already underway and the entire country immersed in communism.

"To Live" is easily one of the best films I have ever seen and surely an achievement for mainland China's film society. The script, which is fictional in character/but based on true events, is a story of historical travesty and the human sense to survive.

Zhang refuses to pull any punches and why would he? To candy-coat the film and practice historical revisionism would under mind exactly what the film is trying to say. The Chinese, so taken by their new system of government and the striving of completion of Mao's impossible goals that they fail to recognize what is going on around them.

At one point Fugui's son gets back at a local boy who has played a mean trick on his mute sister by pouring a bowel of noodles (doused in chili sauce) over the youngster’s head. The boy's father is furious and claims it is an act of "counter revolution"--the term used for anything or anyone not concurring to Mao's system.

Though Fugui deeply loves his son--he's ready to beat him unmercifully.

During "The Cultural Revolution" where mainly adolescents were called on by Mao and his followers to wreck and persecute (even execute) anything that reminded them of the past: Zhang Yimou makes sure we notice the high level of persecution going on in China's own Communist Party.

Loyal town cadres are revolutionary examples one year and traders ("counter revolutionaries") the next without explanation. This element is what is the cornerstone to sadness the people and China felt during (the now dubbed) "Ten Dark Years."

Naturally, the Chinese government in 1994, upon its release, officially banned "To Live." Director Zhang Yimou and his once leading lady/mistress/girlfriend Gong Li were both silenced for 24 months concerning any kind of speaking done about the film. Fortunately Yimou got a finished copy overseas before the government found out.

"To Live" is truly a masterpiece and a haunting portrait of the early years of Red China.