A celluloid love sonnet, The Road Home displays the further evolution and refinement of Zhang Yimou, already one of cinema’s most evocative poets. It takes a place among the pantheon of his best work, the exquisite historic odes Judou and Raise the Red Lantern, and the present-day “reality-based” Story of Qiuju, and Not One Less.

The Road Home sees a merging of these two strands, dealing with both the present and past in a manner that is a form of realism filtered through four decades of memories. The story and style are simplicity itself, the result not unlike a Chinese painting where the spare brushstrokes through their very restraint create an emotional and visual impact that their more ostentatious counterparts could never hope to achieve.

On the surface, Zhang’s story-telling devices are conventional, particularly the use of voice over narration and adopting “black and white” for the present and “color” for the past. In Zhang’s hands, as expressively lensed by cinematographer Hou Yong, the conventions perfectly suit the narrative by Bao Shi (adapted from his novel).

A businessman returns to his village for the burial of his father, a dedicated teacher much respected in the poor community. His aged mother is adamant that her husband’s funeral must be done in the traditional manner, leading to an extended flashback that takes up nearly two-thirds of the movie’s compact 85-minute running time. The harsh gray Hebei winterscape of the present is transformed into the glorious hues of autumn 1957, when the narrator’s parents—and their love—was young.

The unassuming surface belies a richness and complexity in which Zhang deals with love and death, tradition versus change, and subtly alludes to such non-esoteric issues as politics (the Anti-Rightest Movement of 1957) and education. He also brings to the screen a major new star, Zhang Ziyi. On the strength of her debut here and subsequent knock-out performance in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (completed after but released in Hong Kong before The Road Home), Zhang Ziyi reveals a screen presence and incandescence on a par with the director’s previous “find”, Gong Li. If The Road Home is a harbinger of future cinematic collaborations, then we have much to look forward to.

4 1/2 Stars

This review is copyright (c) 2000 by Paul Fonoroff. All rights reserved. No part of the review may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without permission in writing from the copyright owner.