La Strada Verso Casa

Questo è un film sulla perseveranza. Un ruolo fondamentale lo svolge la "nonna": dapprima cerca di dissuadere la nipotina dal perseguire il sogno d'amore con il maestro, giudicato troppo elevato per la loro umile condizione sociale. Ma quando la giovane insiste la nonna fa di tutto per aiutarla: Di rompe una ciotola che aveva usato per portare piatti prelibati al suo amato e la nonna la fa riparare segretamente, anche se sarebbe stato più economico comprarne una nuova.

Di impara dalla nonna. Flash foward: quando serve un panno funebre per il funerale del marito, l'ormai anziana Di insiste a far riparare l'unico telaio tradizionale del villaggio per farlo a mano, anche se sarebbe stato più facile ed economico comprarne uno al negozio.

Questo è anche un film interessante per capire come è cambiata la Cina dal tempo della povertà e del maoismo estremo degli anni cinquanta fino al periodo di relativamente maggiore libertà e considerevole prosperità degli anni novanta. La critica del maoismo appare anche nell'episodio che vede il maestro portato via dal villaggio per non meglio precisati motivi politici (siamo nel periodo della repressione "anti destra" seguito alla "campagna dei cento fiori"). Si vede anche come negli anni novanta spetti all'iniziativa personale del maestro trovare i fondi (privati) per ricostruire la scuola, mentre in periodi ideologicamente più ortodossi questa sarebbe stata responsabilità della pubblica amministrazione.

3 persone l'hanno trovato utile

Germano Zattarin

Godmorning...

Recensito in Italia il 2 gennaio 2017

Goodmorning Ottimo racconto ben interpretato ed descritto da attors molto bravs condotto da un regista conosciutissimo DVD esente da difetti recapito ad casa my perfect come pachage ed in ordine l'ho gradit molto pertant era un DVD da my ricercato da anni ed quindi l'ho consiglio ad tutti ( gli appassionati ) ed ad chiunque s diletts ed piaccia quest raccontar ed job del regista !!!

Recensito in Italia il 2 gennaio 2022

Davvero un gran film, ben recitato, paesaggi stupendi, delicato e intenso.

La semplicità dell'amore.

Paolo Bartoli

Recensito in Italia il 10 maggio 2013

La bellezza del film è nella semplicità della trama (non menzionati tutti i dettagli che non riguardano la storia d'amore: ottima scelta) e nella sapiente e rigogliosa fotografia che accompagna gli stati d'animo della protagonista.
Sono un ammiratore di Zhang Ziyi, ma questo è il primo film nel quale la sua bravura supera la sua grazia (che pure è elevata)...recita con spontaneità (probabilmente aiutata dalla sua giovane età) e diventa intermediaria semplice e naturale del messaggio poetico del regista.
Un film che consiglio a tutti, ma in particolar modo agli adolescenti.
Una nota di merito anche alle musiche che , forse, hanno l'unico difetto di essere troppo discrete...

3 persone l'hanno trovato utile

Mattia

La strada verso casa

Recensito in Italia il 22 agosto 2020

Bellissimo film drammatico ma bello.

Edizione economica in plastica sottile.

Residents

Recensito in Italia il 30 aprile 2024

Questa versione e' bruttissima ed economica, in plastica sottile e senza libretto.
Esiste la prima versione in plastica doppia che e' bellissima.

Recensito in Italia il 27 luglio 2019

Bello..ci racconta la Cina in modo dolce e sincero..

Recensito in Italia il 2 agosto 2017

Un film che segna il tempo, che ci porta all'amore vero, quello di una volta, in cui le distrazioni moderne ci hanno disabituato.

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Susan L. King

First Love, Last Love

Recensito in Canada il 20 dicembre 2013

A young village girl sees the new teacher and falls in love. The story takes us through the ups and downs of simple life during the time of Mao Ze Dong although politics is not a part of the story. Black and white covers the present, colour is for the love story. It is a touching story with a setting in northern China that rings true. I loved it.

J. L. Sievert

Simplicity and goodness

Recensito nel Regno Unito il 4 maggio 2015

A touching love story like no other, pure in its simplicity and goodness.

In the days when marriages in the villages of rural China were arranged by families, Zhao Di, an illiterate 18-year-old girl in pigtails, falls in love with the new teacher of the village school. He is Luo Changyu, aged 20, freshly arrived from the city. The villagers are happy with him, as it soon becomes clear that he is sincere, idealistic and good-hearted.

Zhao Di lives alone with her aged mother. Her father died some years ago. When that happened it is said her mother cried so many tears that she nearly went blind. Her vision now is very poor.

Luckily, ours is not, as the film is enchantingly beautiful to behold, the colours in it rich everywhere: the yellow light streaming through the windows of the schoolhouse; the bright pink silk jacket Zhao Di wears and the lime-green ribbons in her hair; the yellows, greens and golds of the surrounding fields, meadows and forests; the deep blue of the sky; the dusty brown road that snakes through the hills to the village from the city far beyond; and the bright red banner Zhao Di has woven on her loom at home which hangs from a rafter in the schoolhouse ceiling, placed there to bless the teacher, his students and their studies. Even the simple food the villagers eat looks beautiful, the camera lingering with love over dishes as if they were still lives from an Old Master's painting.

This brightness mirrors the good cheer in Zhao Di's heart. She has never known love like this till now, her heart wholly given over to the teacher. Her mother tries to dissuade her in order to protect her. She thinks any young man from the city a cut above everyone, including Zhao Di. But we can see from the glimpses the teacher casts toward Zhao Di that he notices her as someone special. As a token of his regard for her he gives her a bright red hair clip. Zhao Di's heart swells as she receives this unexpected gift, her pure face radiant with joy.

Teacher Luo is called back to the city. He doesn't want to leave the village but has no choice. He must obey the strict orders of his superiors. He promises Zhao Di he will return to the village, but the day of his promised return passes. It is winter now. Swirling winds blow through the snowy village and beyond. Yet Zhao Di is determined to see Luo Changyu. She feels he never would have broken his promise, so something must be detaining him. She tries to walk through a snowstorm to reach the city, but she does not get far along the road before she collapses from exhaustion in the cold. Some villagers find her and bring her back to the village on a cart. News of Zhao Di's heroic effort to try to see Luo Changyu reaches him. Zhao Di is deep asleep in bed, recovering from fever and frostbite to her hands. Secretly disobeying his superiors, Luo Changyu sneaks back to the village for two days to be by Zhao Di's side. Now the truth is out and everyone in the village knows: he loves her as much as she loves him.

Zhao Di recovers but politics intervene. Luo Changyu must wait two years before he can return to the village to resume his teaching. Zhao Di waits patiently for him. On the day he returns she wears the bright red jacket she wore on that first bright day he arrived in the village. This road, so significant to her, is the thing that first brought him to her and connects their hearts even now.

More than 40 years later Luo Changyu dies along this road. He is more than 60 now, still teaching and trying to raise funds to build a new school. He is on his way to another nearby village when he is caught in a snowstorm along the road and overwhelmed. His son, Luo Yusheng, perhaps 30 years old, comes back to the village from the city when news of his father's death reaches him. His mother is inconsolable, the love and inspiration of her life suddenly taken from her. She sits in vigil to his spirit outside the schoolhouse. Her son finds her there and takes her home.

She will sit at her loom all night and weave a special cloth to her husband, the cloth her last gift of gratitude to him. It must be placed on his coffin, and she insists that the coffin be carried by hand back to the village where his soul can rest in peace. This old custom she insists upon. The son is against it at first but finally relents. He talks to the village mayor and they gather pallbearers for the coffin — more than 100 of them from the village and other villages. Word has spread that the teacher has died. Scores of his old students drop everything to come to the village, eager to be part of the procession. So eager, in fact, that they will not accept any payment. We learn from this humble act how deeply he was loved and respected by many.

He is held aloft as the coffin is carried by hand many miles back to the village. This is done through cold winds and snow. He is buried on a small rise that overlooks the schoolhouse. Next to him is the old disused village pump where Zhao Di often used to go to fetch water in buckets, and where she lingered within earshot of the school just to hear the mellifluous tones of the teacher's voice. In old age she still hears that voice. It lingers in her heart and mind, a remnant of him that will not leave her.

How is it possible to take sentiment so pure as this and not make it sentimental? Frankly, it takes artistic greatness. The director of this film, Zhang Yimou, has this. He has given us a masterpiece of the heart that many will never forget.

4 persone l'hanno trovato utile

JNagarya

A bowl, a red jacket, a barrette, mushroom dumplings . . .

Recensito negli Stati Uniti il 15 maggio 2009

Initially (I'd only recently discovered Zhang Ziyi) I was doubtful: the cover illustration gave me the impression that it's a children's story, for children. On the other hand, though, were others' reviews, so I couldn't quite put it out of mind. Finally, after passing it over a half-dozen times or so, I decided -- still doubting and hesitant -- to buy it on the strength of Zhang Ziyi's acting in other films. I'll not attempt to detail the "plot," or incidents in it -- others have done that with varying degrees of accuracy.

It is not a children's story. (But will do no harm to children.)

At the end of my first viewing I was speechless. Though a published writer, I could find no words to describe, or represent, or capture what it is, what it does. I've since lost count of how many times I've watched it -- spellbound. I've struggled to find the words with which to write adequate review; but as that has seemed impossible, only added comments to other reviews. This is the best I've been able to do:

Elementally human.

Humane.

Universal.

Exquisitely gentle.

Eventually I put it back into its case and onto the shelf. But the very next day I had to put it back into the DVD player. How can so moving a story be made of a few ordinary, inconsequential materialities? --

An old chipped and stained -- but favorite -- bowl, both imbued with and vessel for an innocent, open, generous heart.

A red jacket.

A barrette.

Mushroom dumplings.

One road to and from a tiny village, which seems most often to run in only one direction: from.

Made moving by means of some incomprehensible magic.

The film itself, to the eye -- every frame a painting. I don't know that I've ever seen another so perfectly realized, both perfectly balanced contrasts of crisp black-and-white, and splendid countless soft colors of autumn.

The expert use of lines -- hills, trees, mountains . . .

It is an extremely rare film which one forgets has a camera present. Even when I consciously reminded myself there was -- that understanding almost immediately evaporated.

Flawless acting, especially by the shapeless girl/young woman in pigtails and baggy trousers.

A gift from those who made it, beyond the reach of all deserved, humbled, reverent superlatives. Special as a barrette, as mushroom dumplings.

You need to own your own -- widescreen -- copy. And a multi-disk DVD player as vessel for it -- so you needn't remove it when you want to watch some other film.

17 persone l'hanno trovato utile

Donomy

Einfach Traumhaft...

Recensito in Germania il 19 marzo 2003

Zugegeben, ich habe mir diesen Film ohne viele Vorkenntnisse gekauft. Ich habe gutes über den Film, Regisseur und auch der Schauspielerin gehört, aber davon abgesehen wusste ich eher wenig. Da mich Asien (im speziellen Japan) interessiert und ich auch die Rezessionen gut fand, habe ich mir den Film gekauft und muss sagen... Traumhaft, dieses Wort fällt mir am ehesten zu diesen Film ein.
Wenn man hauptsächlich Hollywood-Produktionen gewöhnt ist (und das ist bei uns in der Regel der Fall, denn ein sehr grosser Teil der Filme kommt aus Hollywood), wird man diesen Film hier vielleicht Anfang's etwas ungewohnt finden. Er beginnt eher langsam und in Schwarz-Weiss (wechselt dann später zu Farbe), ist auch kaum mit Action gefüllt, sondern eher mit sehr schönen Bildern.
Im Grunde dreht sich der ganze Film um eine Liebe. Wer hier allerdings die übliche-Hollywood-Lovestory-wie-sie-in-quasi-jedem-Film-vorkommt-und-ohnehin-immer-gleich-endet erwartet, wird angenehm überrascht sein. Denn hier wird nicht mit Worten und seltsamen Zufällen umhergeschmissen, sondern Emotionen gezeigt und diese sehr subtil, ohne viele Worte. Geradezu fasziniert sieht man zu, wie viele Mühen das Bauernmädchen auf sich nimmt, welche manchmal gelingen und manchmal nicht. Hier ist nicht von "grossen Taten" die Rede, sondern von ganz "banalen" Sachen wie das Sie extra viel und lange kocht, damit der Dorflehrer gutes Essen bekommt, obwohl sie nicht weiss, ob er selbst es überhaupt essen wird. Oder das das Sie jeden Tag, ohne Wissen des Lehrers, an seiner Schule vorbeigeht, damit Sie seine Stimme hören kann... obwohl sie einen anderen, kürzeren Weg gehen könnte.
Ich persönlich finde diesen Film absolut schön und traumhaft, er handelt von der Liebe und deren Entstehen auf eigene, schöne Weise. Ganz anders als die, wie ich leider sagen muss, oft immens kitschigen Hollywood-Produktionen 'ala Titanic, bei welcher das Schiff und über 1000 Tote zur Kulisse eines Liebespaares wurden.
Es gibt wenige Filme, welche ich uneingeschränkt empfehlen kann. Dieser hier ist einer davon. Ich könnte mir nur vorstellen, dass dieser Film jenen nicht gefällt, die eine Abneigung gegen Asien-Filme haben, Geschichten ohne Action nicht leiden können und/oder nichts mit Filmen anfangen können, die "nur" um Gefühle handeln, denn dann wirkt dieser Film eventuell "langweilig".
Allen anderen kann ich nur raten... ansehen und geniesen. Am Besten mit etwas Zeit, denn dieser Film braucht Anfang's bisschen davon, um sich zu entwickeln, aber das zeichnet u.a. auch wirklich gute Filme aus. Nicht, wie sie am Anfang wirken, sondern später und vor allem nachdem man den Film gesehen hat.
Farewell,
Deuteronomy.

103 persone l'hanno trovato utile

Parfait

Recensito in Francia il 8 febbraio 2020

Pour apprendre le Chinois. C'est un bon film. La musique est excellente.