Ok two things. I'm writing a report for this film in school, and I was wondering.... what does everyone think the title actually means? I know the main character Fugui says something about living.. but I don't have the film available to me. help!
another thing just for thoughts. Why do you think Zhang Yimou did not portray all the people that died in the famine through communism? It almost seems as though he was holding back.
Thanks!
the film focuses on one family's struggle of just getting by, or basically trying "to live." by focusing on just one family, he leaves it up to the viewer to interpret just how bad it must've been on a much wider scale. we as a viewer can see just how bad their conditions are because we know better, but they have to live that way so they really don't know any better.
sharethe title translated means "living" or "alive"
shareLife continues.
From the start of the gambling debt that destroys the family to the closing shot of Fengxia's son with the Chicks.
It will continue to do so.
I have always thought "To Live On" was closer to the meaning of the actual Chinese words. There are subtle differences between that and the official translation "To Live". To me, "To Live" didn't quite preserve everything in the meaning of the title considering what the movie shows. "Life Continues" has an apathetic feel to it, rather than the resilience of living a life through good and bad.
share[deleted]
ca. 10 years ago I read the original novel when I was in high school, it took only 3 or 4 hours. That was such a shock for me, until today I still think that is the best novel I had ever read.
The original chinese title has more meaning for me. To live is not simple, it is painful, it is heavy, it's suffering, but after all u have been through, at the end of your life, that's all nothing, because u have already lived. I tried to express my feeling about this novel in english, hope u can understand.
Actually comparing with original novel, the movie is like a comedy. I don't feel the heaviness of life, I don't see the pain FuGui hat suffered, I was very disappointed at the ending of movie also. So if there is a english translation of novel(I think so), I strongly recommend u read it, it's short, only take few hours. U will see what I said.
Wildgoose419 is quite right. The nuance of the movie is probably lost on someone who doesn't know Chinese.
"Huozhe" means "to live on" or to "continue to live on". Or maybe a better translation would be "living on". It's the continuation of life that matters, as symbolized in the grandson at the movie's end. The mother is dead but he's still alive.
A particular scene where this phrase is used is when Jiazhen spoke to the driver/killer of her son. She urged him to live on and not give up.
Heh, answering a 10-year old subject.
Anyway, another essential scene is in the war when they find all the mutilated dead. Faced with the overwhelming horror and death, Fugui says to Chungshen that in contrast to this, "we have to live" simply to show that humanity will prevail after all.
"I am like Cryptonite for men. Cryptonite dipped in cellulite."