Written by: Lu Wei
Starring: Ge You, Gong Li, Niu Ben, Guo Tao, Jiang Wu
Rating: [4/5]
Of the many things ascribed to living life, being easy certainly does not fall into the most common descriptors for the average person. Sure, some could claim to live in a complete life of privilege and luxury, but the characters we follow in To Live certainly do not have that same fortune. Instead, we get a story of their willingness to persevere through such difficult circumstances throughout decades in the life of a family digging deep into our hearts.
After losing his fortune, Xu Fungui (Ge You) reunites with his wife, Jiazhen (Gong Li), who left him because of his inappropriate behavior. As they come back together they encounter the many issues happening around them with their government as well as the afflictions their children deal with.
Dealing with the issues held in To Live could make anyone go mad because of the horrific circumstances these characters must endure. Situation after situation where that would leave someone dejected at a certain point makes you question why these individuals continue to have the strength to carry on. While Fungui and Jiazehn have their own issues they need to deal with, they have so much going on around them they must contend with, which shows the distinction between the controllable and the uncontrollable in their lives.
To Live comes jam-packed with lessons one can glean through the decade-spanning tale and managing what one can control comes as one of them. Fungui and Jiazhen can only control so much when living through the reign of Mao Zedong in China. As we see through this story, critical events occur around them and they have no real power in influencing but just have to make the best of it and ensure their family’s wellbeing survives each of these different phases. At the very least they have some semblance of control of this in their lives and even then they cannot fully prevent the tragedies they encounter.
Through each phase of this story within the decades, we follow these characters, it displays how they find happiness and fulfillment in spite of the actions of the government. Whether they need to help scrounge up enough metal for the effort or when spending time in these concentration camps, these individuals witness the inhumanity of those who make the big decisions for a populace. What occurs to these individuals like Fungui and Jiazhen just serves as collateral damage to them. The perseverance becomes the most notable aspect of this family in the way they continue on and bounce back from everything they encounter helping this serve as quite the inspirational tale and one worth watching.
Even with all of the tragedies tangled together throughout this feature, it still does not forget to relish in the small and beautiful moments of life. Instances where siblings support each other and they each achieve some minor victories amongst a wave of unfortunate circumstances plaguing them. These moments inherently come as a part of life and cannot be dismissed either. Having these moments hit particularly hard allows us to see exactly where this perseverance stems from and why even following the darkest moments they can still come back together and still enjoy each other’s presence.
Going through this tragic and turgid journey we have the wonderful work of Ge You and Gong Li to guide us and what they manage to elicit through these performances is quite sensational. They each enter this story as characters with a more optimistic and living view of e the world only for it to continue to crumble. Gong Li, astounds beautifully with her tragic performance as a mother trying to keep everything together despite all occurring around her. As a woman Jiazhen has even less power to do things for her family through all of the hardships, which allows Gong Li to really sell this terrifying journey for her character. Ge You, carries Fugui’s weight of serving as a father and protector squarely on his shoulders to demonstrate the constant regret and failure he feels through the things he can and cannot control. After all, Fugui started this story pissing away an inheritance that could have given his family a much better life.
Accompanied by Zhang Yimou’s inspired direction, To Live arrives as an ode to humanity and the way individuals can persevere in dark moments. Living through the rule of Mao Zedong certainly puts plenty of what occurs in this feature under perspective, which indirectly causes much of the pain this family endures. On many occasions, when watching this film one might think this family just had a black cat walk by them some time ago causing all of this distress to frequent their lives, but Yimou shows if they can survive and go through these torrid circumstances then it proves life truly exists to live.
Films with Josh 
