★★★★ To Live (Huozhe)

[Gino: 4.0]

Gino says: 'This is Yimou Zhang's 1994 film about one family coping with life in 1940s-1960s small-town China [think 1st graders smelting scrap iron]. This is very much like his The Story of Qui Ju, with the very naturalistic feel to it, only this one was more poetic and emotional. As a parent, I had to hold back tears a couple times. It takes deft film-making to portray huge political upheaval while never losing focus on the family. '