the Road Home (My Father and Mother)

Director: Yimou Zhang
Cast: Ziyi Zhang
     Honglei Sun
     Hao Zheng

The story is about the “Remembrance”. A teacher wants to give his knowledge to the next generation and a farm wants to share her soul with the man she loves. They meet and fall in love. Even though the story doesn’t have a happy ending, it still make audience cry with smile.

There are thoughts about life, death, love, loss and loneliness. The contrast of the black and white present with the ecstatic color flashback scenes of the past are so sharp, it is almost emotionally overwhelming. Snow drifts across the frozen earth and there are scenes of the bitter cold. Your vision is in complete bliss as an aesthetic awareness of nature swirls around you in pictures and sounds in a rural Chinese setting. 

This movie is beautiful because its simplicity. It is pure in its deepest emotions of hope and longing and rich beyond material possessions in the beauty of love.