The Road Home is a nostalgic look back at Chinese village life in the 1950s. It appears to subtly criticize the political crackdown which followed the Let One Hundred Flowers Bloom period, but is primarily a love story.

A son returns from the city for his father's funeral, and learns the story of his parents' love affair. Zhang Ziyi does a fine job as the mother in her youth, ably conveying strength and determination, and Zheng Hao is her equal, convincingly conveying idealism and sincerity as a young schoolteacher assigned to a small village where he will spend the rest of his life. Their courtship advances slowly, as she signals her interest by cooking for him and being in places where she can see him as he passes, and he indicates that he shares her feelings by returning to her frequently for his meals, rather than dividing his time equally between the women of the village. Sun Hong-Lei is solid as the dutiful son prepared to honor his mother's devotion to traditional ways, even though he holds more modern views.

The Road Home is an essentially conservative work, telling an old-fashioned love story and honoring traditional Confucian values. Director Zhang Yi-Mou crafts a movie that progresses slowly but is worth the time, capturing the beautiful scenery of rural China and the beautiful spirits of his protagonists.