Do you believe in love at first sight? If you don't, then you're going to have a difficult time with The Road Home. I don't really believe in love at first sight, infatuation or lust yes, but it's really difficult to really love someone without getting to know them. That said, most romances in movies are, to varying degrees, stories of love at first sight or, at the very least, rushed romance. After all, movies have to fit an entire story in about two hours, which is why you can watch two people meet for the first time in a bar and five minutes later they're lying naked next to each other in bed. But that isn't really love at first sight because there is an implication of a passage of time between the meeting at the bar and the hook up. There is the assumption that something happened between those scenes that resulted in them in bed together and we take it for what it's worth. In Zhang Yimou's The Road Home there nothing implied behind the scenes; the love is instantaneous with no indication there is anything more than the first encounter between the two central characters. It's a simple story of girl sees boy, girl likes boy, girl chases boy, girl gets boy, the end. If you can buy that premise, then this movie captures that simplicity perfectly and rather elegantly. If you have any ounce of cynicism in your body, you may find the story implausible. I was going to use the the word "unconvincing", but thought that might be a poor choice of a word. The girl, Di, is very convincing in her love for Changyu, though you may unconvinced that this would actually happen.
The story opens in the present with the narrator of the film, Luo Yusheng, driving back to his childhood home in rural China after his father dies. His mother wants an old fashioned traditional funeral procession where men carry the body back to the village. The son doesn't see the point in this, as a vehicle would be much more convenient, but the mother is adamant that her husband take "the road home" by foot. At first it seems her wish is merely out of an old rural tradition, but later on we discover it is because of what this road meant for them all those years ago. This beginning part of the movie is shot in black and white and as Yusheng looks at an old photograph of his father and mother, the story of their courtship is told via flashback in glorious color during the 1950's.
His father, Changyu, is a teacher from the city who arrives in this small rural village to build a new school and be the village's teacher. Di, played by Zhang Ziyi in her debut role, is an eighteen year old farm girl who immediately becomes infatuated upon his arrival. She is too shy to approach him, but stays as near as possible to watch him, listen to him, and in her own little way, to be with him. She does little things to try to grab his attention; she wears her best outfits in hopes of being noticed, she cooks her best meals for the workers building the school in hopes that he picks her plate, she draws water from the well on the far side of the village which happens to be next to the school. On the surface, you can chalk this up to simple puppy love or a schoolgirl crush, but it's clear that it is much more to her than that. Okay, so we've established the fact that she's crazy over him, but you never really know why. She never really talks about what she sees in him other than that she loved his voice. Is he kind? Is he gentle? Is he funny? Is he smart? We never know. We basically know nothing about Changyu as the story is told from Di's point of view.
They have brief encounters throughout where they exchange awkward conversations. Both are too shy to talk about how they feel, but beneath that silence is an understanding and affection towards each other, at least that is what I assume we are to gather. Changyu is sent away to the city, apparently in some sort of political trouble (we never find out what it is), and must leave the village just as the two seemed to be connecting. He promises her that he will return. She is heartbroken, but dutifully waits for him. She is a complete wreck and unbearably lonely. On the day he said he would return, she waits at the road in the freezing cold to the point of sickness. This is the significance of the road home that she insists that her husband's funeral procession take forty years later. It is at this road where she waited for him to return back to the village, to her. She wishes for him to come home one last time. Of course, he does return to her and they live happily ever after to the end of the movie.
Some critics have used this film's simplicity as one of its strengths, it's a love story stripped down to its very basics where we can just appreciate the emotion and beauty of it. That may be true, but its simplicity can also be used as its weakness as well. The story is purposely shallow as there is nothing else to focus on. Also, Di is entirely one dimensional, dutiful, faithful, love stricken and utterly helpless without Changyu. She's so forlorn and incapacitated by her love that she comes across as a little pathetic. I would suspect that most feminists would be a little offended by her portrayal.
As for the tone of the movie, the sentiment is laid on so thickly to the point of pandering. The main score is way overused as are the dissolving shots of the landscape and Zhang Ziyi. All are admittedly very beautiful, but it basically amounts to a fancy slideshow rather than a movie. How many times do we have to see Zhang Ziyi's face in a close up looking off into the distance or at Changyu? Half of the movie is basically just watching her watching him.
I will give credit where credit is due though, this movie looks great, which should be expected from Zhang Yimou, who has a reputation for filming visually striking movies such as Raise the Red Lantern, Hero and House of the Flying Daggers. The golden fields, Di's bright red jacket, the picturesque country landscapes that evoke a sense of nostalgia are all wonderfully shot. In her very first role, Zhang Ziyi displays her natural beauty (helped by the fact that she seems to be starring in some kind of perfume commercial frolicking in the fields) and has a sweet innocence and charm to her.
While I wasn't overly moved by the flashback sequence (aka the majority of the movie) the black and white present day scenes are very touching. After we established Di's undying and unrequited love for her husband, we get to see her forty years later as an old lady mourning his death. She misses him dearly but also has the time to worry about her son. He offers to take her back with him to the city not wanting to leave her all alone, but she refuses telling him, "I don't want to leave your father." Pretty moving stuff.
In The Road Home, you either got along for the ride or you didn't. It is clearly meant to be an emotional film, which I'm sure it is for many people, but if you're a robot like me, you can only watch with a sort of detachment.
Grade: C+
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