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Attwood
The Road Home
China, 1999
[Yimou Zhang]
Ziyi Zhang, Honglei Sun, Hao Zheng, Yulian Zhao, Bin Li, Guifa Chang
Drama / Romance
Oh, to be young and in love. The Road Home is, quite simply, a love story of the purest kind; girl meets boy, they fall in love but he has to leave her, and then finally they are reunited. The film opens in the middle of winter, with city businessman Luo Yusheng returning to his remote home village after after the death of his father, Changyu, the local school teacher. His grieving mother requests that, following an old local custom, his father's coffin be carried by the villagers from the local mortuary in the nearby town, over the hills to his burial. All the while the coffin bearers must shout to remind Changyu that he is on the road home, so he doesn't forget where he comes from. Unfortunately the village mayor has reservations about the expense and practicality of this tribute.

These opening scenes are shot in black and white with no music and a slow, morose pace; you begin to feel this will be a thoroughly depressing arty affair. Then Yusheng finds a picture of his father and mother in their youth and begins to recall the tale of their courtship which captivated the entire village. Suddenly the screen is filled with colour as we are transported back to the summer they first met, with the newly appointed teacher arriving, accompanied by a surging score (okay it sounds like the
Titanic score, but it's still damn effective). This is where the real heart of the film lies, recounting the beautiful tale of the young Di and her efforts to get noticed by Changyu. This is storytelling at it's most uncomplicated, we already know the two will get together but it is an unadulterated joy to share in their journey toward each other.

Director Yimou Zhang clearly has an eye for the scenery and the canvases he uses to paint his picture are fabulous, evoking the truly alive feeling brought on by falling in love. But his meticulously lingering style would be in vain were it not for the main object of the camera's attention, Ziyi Zhang (
Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon). She is captivating as the young Di, not only because you could look at her all day without breaking to blink, but her performance is perfect as the teenage girl caught up in her feelings for Changyu, veering between barely contained excitement and frustrated obsession.

We then return to the present, finding Yusheng determined to fulfil his mother's wishes. The return to stark black and white has the audience feeling for the family's loss all the more keenly and as the film draws to an end you, like Di, find yourself longing to be back in that perfect summer again, where all that mattered was the attention of that one person and the whole world seemed alive because of your love.
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