This is a poignant, very sad yet beautiful little movie. Powerful drama with amazing acting and direction. A difficult watch and yet captivating. You keep waiting for the happy end which, in a way, does arrive.

Zhang's handling of this extremely unpleasant period in China's chequered history is masterful. It really is striking to look back on this and reflect on the China of today. Unbelievable transition. Yet I feel the simple nobility and strength of the family unit portrayed in this movie, endures.

Very special little movie.

I had high expectation for Zhang Yimou's latest film Coming Home, because he finally went back to tell a simple and plain story. So when I heard there was an advanced screening on May 11, I immediately went to see it. However, after watching this 111-minute movie, I was disappointed. To be precisely, I had mixed feeling about the film, I think it is Zhang's best film since House of Flying Daggers, however it is still not a good film. The story is simple, the cinematography is simple, everything is simple in this film, just like what Zhang promised. He intended to make everything simple, trying so hard to drop his color- using style and maintain simple. However, such simpleness is intended, it is not natural. For simple life story movies (Yi Yi, Platform, The World, A Simple Life), the key to be a great movie is if it could give audience a special feeling and a deep theme through its simpleness. And such thing behind its simpleness is the soul of the movie. However, Coming Home didn't achieve that, I can barely feel anything behind its intended simpleness and schmaltz. Its soul is empty. Still, I have to admit, there are some good sides of the film, especially Gong Li and Chen Daoming's amazing acting. Their performances are superb, one of the best performances I've seen in recent years. Also, I love the well-crafted first 10-minute and the sentimental ending. All in all, I appreciated Zhang's trying of going back to the simple and I wish he could continue that. Coming Home may not be a fantastic film but it is still a well-crafted movie with some touching moments. My score: 7.1

(PS: To understand the film ,be sure to learn some background information and the history about the Cultural Revolution. Due to the censorship in China, Zhang can't tell something about the story too obvious, so if you know nothing about that history, you will be confused by something happens in the film.)

Yimou Zhang is one of the most famous and prolific Chinese directors. Some of his films, historical blockbusters based on traditional legends and stories, sprinkled with spectacular martial arts scenes, have gained international fame and circulation. It is possible that they finance and allow the making of his other films, those that deal with today's China or the troubled and controversial history of his country in the last century. The 2014 production 'Coming Home' belongs to this later category. It is a family drama that follows the fate of a Chinese family during the haunting decade of the Cultural Revolution and the years that followed. The year the film was made is also significant - 'Coming Home' could not have been made or would have looked differently a decade or two before 2014, and it would look differently or not be made today. The title of the film refers to the return from exile of a Chinese intellectual convicted of an unspecified guilt, who reunites with his family after almost two decades of separation. 'Coming Home' brings to screen a novel by a Chinese writer based in the United States, Geling Yan. It is an original approach to a topic present in the films and literature of the world, especially from other communist or former communist countries - the first example that comes to my mind os the one of the novel 'Panta rhei' by the Russian writer Vasili Grossman.

The film opens with a long prologue, which takes place during the period of maximum terror and repression. Political prisoner Lu Yanshi (played by Daoming Chen) escapes from the 're-education' camp where he was exiled and tries to see his wife, Feng Wanyu (played by Gong Li), and daughter Dan Dan (Huiwen Zhang) who was only three years old when he was arrested. The woman and her daughter are warned by the authorities not to receive him and to report on him as soon as he appears. In a heartbreaking scene, Feng Wanyu refuses to let him into the apartment. He is denounced by the teenage girl, educated in 'patriotic' spirit, who hopes that in this way her career as a dancer in 'revolutionary' ballets will not be barred. A few years later, the period of terror ends and the released prisoners return home. Feng Wanyu, who had suffered a shock and became amnesic in the aftermath of her husband's re-arrest, no longer recognizes him. Dan Dan, whose dreams of becoming a dancer had been shattered by being the 'traitor's daughter' and despite denouncing her father, together with Lu Yanshi will try to awaken the woman's suppressed memory to return the family life to normal.

The story focuses on the family cell and viewers can decide whether what they see on the screen can be generalized to the historical context in which the story takes place or even beyond. Is it possible to return to normalcy after long periods of separation and the traumatic experiences of those deported or imprisoned and of those left at home? Is Feng Wanyu's amnesia a coincidence or a symbol of a society trying to forget the dark episodes of its history? Each spectator will draw her or his own conclusions and lessons. But all, I believe will admire the acting. Gong Li and Daoming Chen are formidable actors who play with sensitivity and dignity the drama of a couple hit by the storms of history. The cinematography, combined with the authenticity of the sets and costumes, transports us to that period in history, unknown to those who did not live in a communist country. At one point I had the impression that the film is black and white, but the sensation was due to the almost mono-chromatic monotony of life, the simplicity of clothes, the decay of standard homes of the time. In the simple and impoverished interiors we witness the intrusion of the authorities into private life, the constant surveillance to which the common people were subjected. The scenes in the train station are memorable. The soundtrack is enriched by the music played by the wonderful pianist Lang Lang. The last part of the story and the conclusion of 'Coming Home' may seem melodramatic, but here too there is room for reflection. The characters do not revolt and take individual responsibility in front of the others for their share of the blame for what happened. Forgetting and forgiving each other is the key to their survival.