Sunflower (2005)

Set in Mao's China, Zhang Yang's "Sunflower" is a tender and touching family drama that spans five decades, from 1967 to 2000. Xiangyang is only a baby when his father, Gengnian, an aspiring artist, is thrown into a "re-education camp" on a trumped-up charge of disloyalty to the state. When Gengnian is finally released and sent back to his family, Xiangyang is a nine-year-old boy with no memory of his dad and no interest in following in the old man's footsteps as a painter. This sets up an ongoing conflict between father and son that extends well into Xiangyang's early adulthood."Sunflower" is a subtle, thoughtful, deliberately paced look at just how much influence a parent can reasonably be expected to have over the life of a child, as Xiangyang comes to realize that until he can get out from under the thumb of his father, he has no real hope of ever becoming a fully independent man in his own right. For Gengnian, it's a matter of learning that he can't simply transfer all the thwarted and unfulfilled dreams he once had for his own life onto his son without eventually robbing the young man of his independence and breaking his spirit.The screenplay is scrupulously fair to all parties as it astutely explores the universal truths of filial relationships - with unmannered performances and self-effacing direction adding greatly to the naturalism of the piece.

Since there are only eleven comments, so I felt the need to write another one.The acting are pretty good, especially the mother and the father. The makeup is bad for Joan Chen when she was supposed to be an old woman. It was quite obvious that she was wearing a wig. And the wrinkles on her face looked bad, too. On the other hand, whoever did the makeup for the father did a good job. The father looked right about his age.The ending was kind of strange. I don't see a reason for the father to disappear all of sudden with no particular reason.This movie is over 2 hours long. It is just too long. During the 30 years, many major political events happened right in Beijing, this movie did not mention any of them. Of course, it is understandable because the Chinese "socialist" government has a strict censorship. When will the government gave up its strict control on artists' creativity? We can only imagine how many wonderful artworks, movies could have been presented to the world. Whether they tried to avoid those political events or simply didn't care to mention them, that directly affect the movie, it made it too flat. There was no major ups and downs. There was no single moment which make you want to cry or feel happy for them.

Yang Zhang's film 'Sunflower' explores the changing face of China over thirty years, seen through the prism of a stormy father-son relationship. The authority of family has always been important in traditional Chinese culture, so this is a believable conflict in a story of China entering the modern age. However, the movie is not especially subtle, the father figure does little more than assert that others should do what he asks them, and the use of Western music is disappointing, it doesn't feel like the soundtrack of these characters' lives. I still enjoyed the film, the story is never forced and it gives one a flavour of how one might imagine life in China to be. But at heart it's a conventional tale.

The English Name for this movie is Sunflower. I saw this at the Toronto Film Festival.This was a thoughtful piece of work and is definitely worth a look for an insightful dramatic tale in a Chinese setting -- with both family and society as key themes. I hope more movies like this get made!The story takes us through the life of an urban Chinese family -- the father becomes the art teacher and disciplinarian for his 'want-to-have-fun-with-the-town-kids' son. In broad strokes, we see the clash of father-son wills as each tries to get his own way. But the conflict is born out of an emotional pain as father's hands were crushed purposefully during the cultural revolution -- to prevent him from drawing anymore. How much more awful can you get? As the movie fast-forwards through time, we see the broad strokes transform as both son and father grow and continue their journey through life -- more conflict, more of an interesting view on the life they're going through. The artwork in this movie speaks volumes. The Sunflower imagery is moving. I'm choking up as I write this.FAMILY: The director was present and commented how society is based on family, and hence how looking at family relationships really allows you to examine society. For some reason, the close-up look at a family worked really well for me. Very nuanced writing and direction.EVOCATIVE OF REALITY: The timing of the key story events rooted in recent history made this story really come alive for me. As society influenced the characters, the characters reacted to society. This really gave the story a fresh dose of reality and gave me what really felt like a true insider's perspective on a set of experiences growing up in China.For me, this story made me reflect on my own family, my own life, and force me to examine some choices I've made in my past. It was a tad long, but still worth the time.