To Live
I must admit, I was less than excited at the prospect of seeing another historical “period-piece”. Most I have seen have left me less than awe-struck, and carry little weight or importance other than a portrayal of life in a different era. “To Live” was an exception to the rule, to say the least.
I found myself immediately immersed into a world I had never seen and could never imagine. An early 1940’s, poverty struck China. A world ruled by the few elite rich lords under what amounts to a feudal system. It is something read about in history class, but to see it first hand in such beautiful detail is an entirely different—and moving—experience.
The audience is introduced to Fugui, a young man with a serious gambling problem. His family, once prominent and wealthy, barely has anything left but their ancestral family home where he resides with his father, mother, wife and child. Fugui, against his wife’s wishes, heads out “one last time” to the gambling halls, in the hopes of settling his debt. He quickly loses everything. His house, his father, his wife, and his status in one fell swoop.
Fugui must then start his life over as a common pauper hawking street wares, struggling to care for his ill mother. As he settles into his new life, he slowly climbs the proverbial ladder becoming somewhat successful and making ends meet by putting on musical puppet-shows for extra income, while the Chinese Revolution sweeps across the country. Eventually, the revolution catches up with Fugui and he finds himself swept up in its current as it is billed as a revolution for the commoner and the lower class.
Chairman Mao rises to power, Communism takes hold, and optimism runs unbridled. For a while, society seems to improve, an egalitarian utopia emerges, but it is not to last. Society implodes on itself as accusations of disloyalty to the Communist party run rampant, and everyone of the old regime is imprisoned. Society begins to fall apart as Chairman Mao’s programs begin to crumble and people, including Fugui, begin to see the effects and consequences of the untamed and unrealistic enthusiasm, and the loss of knowledge.
The film however does not end without hope. There are several allusions to rebirth, and the rebuilding of Chinese society, and a better future to come after the fall of Communism. The film ends somewhat abruptly, but only after a poignant metaphor by Fugui that leaves the viewer optimistic after a film filled with so much tradgedy, changing the film from a story of non-stop tradgedy to a celebration of life and hope for the future.