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IMDbPro

To Live

Original title: Huo zhe
  • 19941994
  • Not RatedNot Rated
  • 2h 13m
IMDb RATING
8.3/10
18K
YOUR RATING
Gong Li in To Live (1994)
After Fugui and Jiazhen lose their personal fortunes, they raise a family and survive difficult cultural changes during 1940s to 1970s China.
Play trailer1:46
1 Video
99+ Photos
  • Drama
  • War
After Fugui and Jiazhen lose their personal fortunes, they raise a family and survive difficult cultural changes during 1940s to 1970s China.After Fugui and Jiazhen lose their personal fortunes, they raise a family and survive difficult cultural changes during 1940s to 1970s China.After Fugui and Jiazhen lose their personal fortunes, they raise a family and survive difficult cultural changes during 1940s to 1970s China.
IMDb RATING
8.3/10
18K
YOUR RATING
  • Director
    • Yimou Zhang
  • Writers
    • Wei Lu(screenplay)
    • Hua Yu(novel)
  • Stars
    • You Ge
    • Gong Li
    • Ben Niu
Top credits
  • Director
    • Yimou Zhang
  • Writers
    • Wei Lu(screenplay)
    • Hua Yu(novel)
  • Stars
    • You Ge
    • Gong Li
    • Ben Niu
  • See production, box office & company info
    • 101User reviews
    • 26Critic reviews
  • See more at IMDbPro
    • Won 1 BAFTA Award
      • 7 wins & 8 nominations total

    Videos1

    Trailer
    Trailer 1:46
    Trailer

    Photos245

    Gong Li in To Live (1994)
    Gong Li in To Live (1994)
    To Live (1994)
    Gong Li and Lu Zhang in To Live (1994)
    You Ge and Tao Guo in To Live (1994)
    Gong Li, Lu Zhang, and Jiang Wu in To Live (1994)
    Yimou Zhang in To Live (1994)
    Gong Li and Lu Zhang in To Live (1994)
    To Live (1994)
    Gong Li in To Live (1994)
    Gong Li in To Live (1994)
    Gong Li in To Live (1994)

    Top cast

    Edit
    You Ge
    You Ge
    • Xu Fugui
    Gong Li
    Gong Li
    • Xu Jiazhen
    Ben Niu
    • Town Chief
    Wu Jiang
    Wu Jiang
    • Wan Erxi
    Deng Fei
    • Xu Youqing
    Tao Guo
    Tao Guo
    • Chunsheng
    Tianchi Liu
    • Xu Fengxia, as an adult
    Zongluo Huang
    • Fu Gui's Dad
    Yanjin Liu
    • Fu Gui's Mom
    Dahong Ni
    Dahong Ni
    • Long'er
    Lian-Yi Li
    • Sgt. Lao Quan
    Cong Xiao
    • Xu Fengxia, as a teenager
    Lu Zhang
    • Fengxia, as a child
    Yan Su
    Yan Su
    • Director
      • Yimou Zhang
    • Writers
      • Wei Lu(screenplay)
      • Hua Yu(novel) (screenplay)
    • All cast & crew
    • See more cast details at IMDbPro

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    Storyline

    Edit

    Did you know

    Edit
    • 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.

    • Connections
      Featured in At the Movies: Star Trek: Generations/The Swan Princess/Miracle on 34th Street/The Professional/To Live (1994)

    User reviews101

    Review
    Top review
    An All-Time Top Ten Film
    This is Zhang Yimou's and Gong Li's crowning triumph -- a top candidate for the greatest Chinese film of all time. Splendidly photographed and composed, consumately acted and faithfully scored, "To Live" is a three or four hour film novel lovingly packed into two hours and fifteen minutes. For a long time, Ingmar Bergman's "Fanny and Alexander" stood by itself as the greatest family epic in my moviegoing experience. "The Best Years of Our Lives" ran a distant second. But since 1995 "To Live" has moved into a very close second.

    Most Chinese who lived through Mao's Revolution say this film tells it like it was at the simple townsperson level. Though it can serve as an overview of Chinese history 1944 to 1970 or so, unlike Lean's "Gandhi" or "Lawrence of Arabia", this is not a hero's biopic. Instead we see a foolish, once rich but now fallen heir and his wife blown about by the winds of fortune for three decades and challenged as parents trying to raise two children under increasingly harsh and punitive communist tyranny. What you sense in this film, that I've never seen before in any Chinese film, is how the ethical and moral principles that have prevailed in Chinese culture for 2500 years - a mix of transcendence and pragmatism, humility and grit, cosmic harmonic balance and social duty - allows an ordinary couple to accept unbearable tragedy and keep going. It also shows what this survival strategy costs them in their Communist context. The screenplay is full of cosmic irony. It makes us aware, without shouting, that this is just one family among millions. As Yimou's transitional screen message says: "...leaving no family unaffected". It is to that extent, a tribute film.

    Maybe ten hours of Kieslowski's "Decalogue" might accomplish the same broad survey of of human happenstance and emotion. Maybe Kurosawa in three or four hours. But never in two plus hours have I seen the scope Zhang Yimou achieves here. "To Live" also contains as wise a moral lesson as any film I've seen, and it's a gentle one despite the surrounding violence. I couldn't paraphrase the lesson for you. I wouldn't try. Just watch. It will reach you non-verbally in about 90 minutes. Just know, this isn't Shakespeare, Hollywood or soap opera. It's something else.

    Gong Li's work is as powerful as anything Streep or Sarandon have ever done in the west - which is all the more inspiring since the camera doesn't lavish star-level attention on her. As her husband, Ge You turns in an emotionally riveting, charming, sometimes funny and devastatingly honest performance. The direction is sure handed, the shooting unfailingly gorgeous. Zhang Yimou's cinematic canvass has never been so big or his palette so colorful and controlled. Full of spectacle, great sweeps of time and onrushing tides of humanity, "To Live" is still, in the end, a sweet and poignant epic with an intimate, observant heart. Great story telling. Do not miss! Try to view a letterbox version on a big screen.
    helpful•73
    4
    • intuitive7
    • Jun 15, 2002

    Details

    Edit
    • Release date
      • December 16, 1994 (United States)
    • Countries of origin
      • China
      • Hong Kong
    • Language
      • Mandarin
    • Also known as
      • Phải Sống
    • Filming locations
      • China
    • Production companies
      • ERA International
      • Shanghai Film Studios
    • See more company credits at IMDbPro

    Box office

    Edit
    • Gross US & Canada
      • $2,332,728
    • Opening weekend US & Canada
      • $32,900
      • Nov 20, 1994
    • Gross worldwide
      • $2,332,728
    See detailed box office info on IMDbPro

    Technical specs

    Edit
    • Runtime
      2 hours 13 minutes
    • Color
      • Color
    • Sound mix
      • Dolby Stereo
    • Aspect ratio
      • 1.85 : 1

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