One of the things I thought was really interesting about the movie To Live was that, while it hasn't exactly sung praises about Communist China, it still seems to show the lives of those living during this time more positively than other movies from china that I have seen about this time. Usually in movies such as Sent Down Girl and The Blue Kite there was a looot more corruption in the officals. For instance, I'm used to seeing the town leader more as a sellout who uses his own power for his own gain. And who tends to be more suspicious and everything. Also, while Fugui and his wife are rather cautious about putting forward a very good face so they don't get accused of being counterrevolutioninaires, they seem to have less reason for fear than I'm used to seeing as well. Fugui seems like a real jerk who is just trying to look good when he forces his son to go to work, while in any other movie, the fact that they might actually get accused of something pretty bad by not making their son work like every other son in town would have been a bit more obvious. The town leader seems to be a really nice guy, and the communism in the movie seems to be, if not really efficient at all, very good for group togetherness and a sense of community. Everyone is working together and laughing and while they are overworked, there does seem to be more of a feeling of everyone working for one cause than you usually get in capitalism or even in other movies about communist china. I wonder if, since this movie was pretty stringently edited by the Chinese government if they made sure that the director wasn't toooo negative about the whole thing or if, in the second half of the movie, I'll see the communist china I'm more used to seeing.
Posted by letisha at October 21, 2004 09:02 AMI think in the second half of "to Live" we definetly see some of the major problems of communist china that you felt were lacking in the first half. We witness some of the most faithful communist leaders being accused of being reactionaries. Also, the punishment of pretty much anyone who is educated, or even elderly, such as the Doctor. We see the hospital in terrible shape because all of the doctors and professors were punished for being intellectuals. The conformity required by the chinese government pretty much created a standstill in progress. From the scene in the hospital, i was certainly under the impression that they meant it as just one example of this type of problem, and that it was far reaching across all types of institutions.
Posted by: joe at October 21, 2004 06:22 PM