It’s been years and years since I’ve watched the incredible 1999 Zhang Yimou movie “The Road Home”…I suppose part of the reason I’ve been putting it off so long is because I’m always such a tearful WRECK after seeing it! But on this cloudy, rainy afternoon, I just couldn’t get it out of my head and knew it was time to dust it off and take it in all over again!
On paper, The Road Home seems like a very basic story: Small town girl falls for big- city man, romance ensues, but that is just its starting point. The tale of Zhao Di, a small country girl who become smitten with a young man who arrives in the late 1950’s to teach IS filled with love and romance, but more than that, this movie is simply STEEPED with old-time Chinese customs and “how things used to be” nostalgia, and all set up against a backdrop of the beautiful China countryside in all its glorious seasons, rustic orange autumns and chilly grey winters.
The Road Home begins in present day with a middle-aged man named Yusheng making his way back to his old hometown. His father, Luo Changyu, the town schoolteacher for years, has passed away, and the townsfolk need to talk to him about funeral arrangements. It seems that he died far away from home trying to get funding for a new school, and needs to be brought back to town. Only thing is, Yusheng’s mother wants him to be brought back on foot, his coffin carried by bearers across the fields and roads.
They urge Yusheng to convince his mother that this old, superstitious way is impossible for the elders who are still in town to undertake, and ask him to get her to agree with following alongside a driven car. She is adamant that the only way for her husband to find his way home is to return by foot. As he talks to her, the story of how his mother and his father met unfolds…
As the flashback tale starts, we are treated to a humble lifestyle of yesteryear, where women were primarily in charge of the food, and because of superstition, were not even allowed to come near the construction of a new building for fear of bad luck.
A school is being constructed for the new arrival, Luo Changyu, a teacher from the city who is going to be the town's very first educator. There is excitement about the town and all have gathered to watch, among them the bright eyed and innocent Zhao Di...
It’s here that Di falls for Changyu and as one of the women given the task of cooking, begins putting her heart into every meal she makes for him. Every day she sets out her homecooked dish amongst all the other women's plates, and each time she is nervous with hope that he will pick her dish out of the rest! Slaving away each morning to cook, it is just fascinating watching her prepare her meals in such an old fashioned way!
It’s a joy watching how things were done on a day-to-day basis back then- From fetching water from a well to knitting clothing and banners using a loom, the old fashioned way of getting and making things is such a quaint thing to"experience"!
There’s this one scene concerning a Ceramic Bowl that is the perfect example of this film’s wonderful blending of love, tradition and culture… Di is saddened because Changyu has suddenly been called out of town.
There was a ceramic bowl she loved (simply because it was the one he ate out of), but she accidentally broke it when she was chasing after him with dumplings for his journey. She is devastated, but one day her kind mother calls in a pottery repairman to mend the bowl.
I can’t TELL you how FASCINATING this scene was to watch as the expert craftsman used his ancient tools to fix the dish. “The nails I use will be more expensive than a brand new bowl” he tells the mother, but she knows it is important for Di’s heart. And sure enough, when she opens the cupboard days later and sees the mended bowl, she sheds tears of gratitude for her mother’s kind act.
Another extremely powerful aspect of The Road home is the MUSIC, so haunting and mesmerizing, Sometimes when I’d think about certain scenes, I’d think to myself, “gee, that person was simply walking down the road, I wonder why that was so emotional to watch?”, then when I’d actually sit down to see it, I’d realize that in a lot of the scenes, it was the emotionally uplifting and winsome music that just grabbed my heart and made me fall apart!
And of course, I cannot go without mentioning the most important part of the movie, actress Zhang Ziyi herself as the main character Di. Oh my GOSH, how much warmth and emotion can someone project through only a gaze, a smile or a simple tilt of the head!
She does it all, without saying anything in most of the scenes, you are with her through every step and feeling the same feeling she is- as she sits impatiently waiting for her dish to be chosen, or shuffles nervously outside of the school, your heart is just melting watching her! And the scenes of her waiting on the side of the road each day just to get a glimpse of the “new teacher” in town is some of the most ADORABLE and HEART-ACHINGINGLY SWEET cinematic moments of all time!!!
One other thing I should mention is that, unlike other movies, it is the PRESENT DAY which is shot in grainy black-and-white, and it is the PAST that is shot in glorious, lush color. I remember movie critic Roger Ebert noting that that makes sense, because as we get older, the present seems humdrum and grey, while the cherished memories of our youth gets more magical, vibrant, and beautiful with each day!
PS: I remember after just seeing the movie for the first (and second) time, my sister was asking for some “good movies to watch”. I immediately suggested The Road Home, thinking she was sure to appreciate the things this movie had to offer. I was shocked when she handed the movie back to me the following week, saying “Meh, I couldn’t get into it, I’m not a fan of these Harlequin Romance Novel Movies.” Wow, was that ALL she got out if it? She admitted to only watching the first half hour or so, but boy, I really have a hard time getting how someone could watch such a beautifully crafted tale like this and only come away with that summation...she should really take another look!
Posted by zdorama @ zdoramaagain.blogspot.com
