To Live (1994)

This movie is awesome. IT is so awesome that it is awesome. Its awesomeness cannot be defined. This movie is awesome. IT is so awesome that it is awesome. Its awesomeness cannot be defined. This movie is awesome. IT is so awesome that it is awesome. Its awesomeness cannot be defined. This movie is awesome. IT is so awesome that it is awesome. Its awesomeness cannot be defined. This movie is awesome. IT is so awesome that it is awesome. Its awesomeness cannot be defined. This movie is awesome. IT is so awesome that it is awesome. Its awesomeness cannot be defined. This movie is awesome. IT is so awesome that it is awesome. Its awesomeness cannot be defined.

To live is one of the most heart wrenching,soul stirring film i have ever seen.Its got great acting,great cinematography,dialogues,music and direction which makes it a real gem of world cinema.Even the subtitles didn't look like a difficult task to read considering how brilliant,sad yet uplifting the film was.Its hard to believe that the main protagonist endured and suffered so much pain in the film yet had the heart and strength to carry on with their lives with a smile on their face.A brave film about a family who choose to live under every possible bad circumstance.I am proud i watched this Chinese film being an Indian.Go for it even if you don't know Chinese because this film deserves more recognition world wide.

"This piece of art is an epic family drama." If i read reviews like this, i usually think of over-the-top artsy movies with weird acting, unrealistic dialogs and long shots at clocks or stones that no person in his right mind, who is not a complete movie buff would voluntarily sit through. To all you "normal" people, who are afraid of just this: This is not one of those movies. It's no popcorn cinema, but it's still highly entertaining in its own way. The story is gripping, the acting is nothing short of marvelous (Ge You and Gong Li deserve every prize there is for their performances) and the dialogs are simply ...real. It makes you laugh out loud and it makes you cry (there'll be more crying than laughing going on, though) To me, it's a perfect movie, that might just change your perspective on life. However, you will be able to enjoy this masterpiece more thoroughly, if you get yourself acquainted with Chinese history from the 1930s to the 1970s, and while you're at it try to dive into Chinese culture itself real quick as well ^_^ Trust me, you will be able to enjoy this movie much more, if you know more than "well, the commies took over in '49 and then there was this cultural revolution, i guess". If you don't have all that background information, you'll probably still think of it as a great movie, but you're going to miss some of the subtle social commentary and will not recognize the importance of some of the plot devices. So you might want to check out wikipedia or a history book beforehand; or maybe even the novel itself, if you can get your hands on it. The novel is very good, too. But it does lack the optimistic fundamental note and the humor of the movie.

I usually don't really watch movies from China but after watching a few titles such as Not one less and a few more to name including this one I must say I'm moved by movies from China. The movie is about one family life before the communist take over to the 70s where almost end of cultural revolution. The movie is perfectly done and pictures are perfectly shot. The realistic of the movie and the beautifully shot pictures made me stick to my chair without moving and wonder what happen next. This is a master piece indeed. I agree with the previous poster its a shame indeed that this movie is not popular. This apply the same with all other China movie. I suppose the promotion is not hot enough to bring the China cinema to all over the world. People just don't aware that they exist. When you go to the Cd's store, almost 99% of the movies are hardcore action or love and sex movies putting out by Hollywood. I really recommend this movie to all viewer.