Huozhe (1994)

Director:

Yimou Zhang

Writers:

Wei Lu (screenplay)
Hua Yu (novel)

Release Date:

December 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Drama

Plot:

Fugui and Jiazhen endure tumultuous events in China as their personal fortunes move from wealthy landownership to peasantry...

Plot Keywords:

Epic | Gambling | Water Carrier | Family Relationships | Fireworks

Awards:

Nominated for Golden Globe. Another 4 wins & 2 nominations

Cast

You Ge	...	Xu Fugui
Li Gong	...	Xu Jiazhen
Ben Niu	...	Town Chief
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Xiao Cong
Deng Fei	...	Xu Youqing
Tao Guo	...	Chunsheng
Zongluo Huang	...	Fu Gui's dad
Wu Jiang	...	Wan Erxi
Tianchi Liu	...	Xu Fengxia, as an adult
Zhang Lu
Dahong Ni	...	Long'er
Yan Su

Also Known As:

Lifetimes
Living
To Live
Woot jeuk (Hong Kong: Cantonese title)

Runtime:

125 min

Country:

China | Hong Kong

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Dolby

Certification:

South Korea:15 | Germany:12 | Australia:PG | Iceland:L | Singapore:PG | Spain:T | Sweden:11 | UK:12

Company:

ERA International

Trivia:

This film is banned in China. However, there are a number of pirate copies you can buy on the street.

Quotes:

Little Bun: [playing with chickens] When will they grow up?
Xu Jiazhen: Very soon.
Little Bun: And then?
Xu Fugui: And then... the chickens will turn into geese... and the geese will turn into sheep... and the sheep will turn into oxen.
Little Bun: And after the oxen?
Xu Fugui: After oxen...
Xu Jiazhen: After oxen, Little Bun will grow up.
Little Bun: I want to ride on an ox's back.
Xu Jiazhen: You will ride on an ox's back.
Xu Fugui: Little Bun won't ride on an ox... he'll ride trains and planes... and life will get better and better.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in The Safety in Rubber (2007)

Beautiful, painfully heartbreaking.

I think most of us can watch Freddy Krueger rip people apart and barely flinch. Not that Nightmare on Elm Street is a bad film, it never inflicts pain on the viewer.

But this film is so beautiful and so real, that it's unbearably heartbreaking at times. Every time I watch it, and I know a particular heartbreaking scene is coming up, I almost want to turn it off, but I'm just frozen in place, forced to experience the pain of the people on screen, that I've traveled three decades with. Zhang's understanding of the people of China, and the tragedy of history is full of empathy, respect, and adoration. In every scene, Gong Li embodies strength and beauty. Zhang's study of communism and of the Chinese government, isn't a villifying one sided argument, but one with complete understanding of the tragedy of this huge social experiment, that effected not only China, but the whole world.

As a Korean American, I draw some appreciation at the parallel effects on Communism on Korea. Mao-Kim, Taiwan-SouthKorea. But this is a truly universal movie, and anyone would enjoy it.