Classic Tuesdays takes The Road Home

Acclaimed Chinese director Zhang Yimou’s The Road Home (1999) is this month’s Classic Tuesdays film which will be screened at the National Gallery, Castellani House next Tuesday at 6 pm.

According to a press release, The Road Home  is a tale of love and fidelity set in the rural China of a generation ago marked the cinematic debut of young lead actress Zhang Ziyi, in a career that has won her numerous Chinese and international nominations and awards for her roles in films such as Ang Lee’s Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (2000), and Zhang’s Hero (2002) and House of Flying Daggers (2004).

The film begins and ends in austere black and white as a son (Sun Honglei) returns home in the depths of winter to bury his father and finds his distraught mother, Zhao Di, insisting that his father’s body, some distance away, be physically carried home, following an old Chinese custom ensuring that the departed never forget their loved ones. As he fails to dissuade her from this decision he tells the story of his parents’ meeting and courtship in flashback, filmed in rich colour and the sweeping landscape settings of the village where his father had arrived as the new school teacher, and where an instant mutual attraction had grown between him and the village’s prettiest girl, the young Zhao Di (Zhang Ziyi).

He accedes to his mother’s wish and the problem of finding bearers for his father’s last journey home is simply resolved in a moving scenario that also brings peace of mind and comfort to both son and mother.

The film won the Silver Bear and the Ecumenical Jury Prize at the Berlin Film Festival, as well as top prizes for its director, art director and lead actress from the Golden Rooster and the Hundred Flowers major Chinese film awards in 2000, and others including the Sundance Film Festival’s Audience World Cinema Award.

Director Zhang’s career has also been widely recognized with similar top honours for his distinctive vision and his use of rich colour in films such as Red Sorghum (1988 Berlin Film Festival’s Golden Bear), Ju Dou, Raise the Red Lantern and Hero (Best Foreign Language Film Academy Award nominations 1990, 1991 and 2002), The Story of Qiu Ju and Not One Less (Venice Film Festival’s Golden Lion Award 1992 and 1999), and To Live (Grand Jury Prize Cannes Film Festival 1995).

The film’s running time is 1 hour 25 minutes and the public is cordially invited to attend this event. Admission is free.