Oct

28

2007


Movie: Getting Home / Luo ye gui gen
Release Date: Janaury 25, 2007
Country: China
Director: Yang Zhang
Starring: Benshan Zhao, Hong Qiwen
Runtime: 110 min
Editor Rating: 7.0
Users Rating: 6.57 1 Star2 Stars3 Stars4 Stars5 Stars6 Stars7 Stars8 Stars9 Stars10 Stars (7 votes)

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“Getting Home” is a quintessential road movie set within the rural backdrop of China. Directed by Yang Zhang (Spicy Love Soup, Shower, Sunflower), the film tells a simplistic, but heart warming, story centered around a peasant and his dead friend. A gentle black comedy of sorts, the humor level will catch you off guard, while the journey itself lures you into the world of Zhao and Liu Quanyou.

For four years, Zhao and Liu Quanyou worked together in a big city factory. The friends often drank together and talked about life, including their innermost fears. Zhao was afraid of dying alone in the big city and away from his family. His friend, Liu Quanyou, promised that if he did pass away he would take his body back to his hometown.

As fate would have it, Liu Quanyou passes away first and Zhao decides to honor his friend’s promise - by carrying his friend’s body back home. The journey is long and Zhao encounters many difficulties, as he must pretend Liu Quanyou is seriously ill. As he gets closer to Quanyou’s hometown, his determination starts to waver, but life itself provides the impetus for the return of his own will power.

The movie doesn’t waste time in its build-up. We’re introduced to Zhao and Liu Quanyou in a restaurant and after just a few moments, we realize that Quanyou is actually dead rather than unconscious from alcohol. The next scene shows the friends on a bus and headed on the long journey to Quanyou’s hometown. Along the way, Zhao encounters many different people under all sorts of different circumstances. Zhao crosses paths with highway robbers, a heart broken truck driver, a man that sets up his own fake funeral, a hairdresser with a northern accent like Zhao’s, a family of beekeepers, a homeless woman that Zhao takes interest in and a bicyclist on a journey to Tibet.

Benshan Zhao, who plays Zhao, is a noted comedian in China and its evident throughout “Getting Home.” He doesn’t lay on the humor in a over the top manner, but rather in an obtrusive manner placed perfectly into the narrative flow. One of the funnier moments would have been the introductory scene between Zhao, a bottle of liquor and the depressed truck driver. From there, Benshan Zhao’s charm becomes more evident as does his talent for humor.

Visually the film is shot in a no frills manner, keeping the visuals in place with the rest of the film. This works well as the rural backdrop becomes like a background character in the film itself. The soundtrack is also impressive, even having classical violins during some emotional scenes - which I found incredibly annoying in other Chinese/Hong Kong films like “After This Our Exile” or “Whispers & Moans”.

While the journey comes closer to its conclusion, you can’t help to feel the life-affirming positive vibe emanating from “Getting Home”. A warm, gentle movie that is as playful as it is emotional, Yang Zhang’s “Getting Home” reminds you that during life’s darker, transitory moments, there’s always sunshine ready to appear at any moment.

buy Getting Home From YesAsia

Cast:
Benshan Zhao - Zhao
Hong Qiwen - Liu Quanyou

Jun Hu - 300Km Truck Driver
Degang Guo - leader of bandits
Ma Wu - old man that plans funeral
Tao Guo - beekeeper husband
Chen Ying - beekeper wife
Yu Xia - bicyclist
Jinshan Liu - Restaurant owner
Dandan Song - homeless lady
Fan Liu
Haiying Sun

If you like this movie you may enjoy: Ad-Lib Night, Gabai Granny, A Long Walk


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2007 Movie Reviews, Chinese Movies, Movie Reviews |

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3 Comments so far

  1. 3 dysigner Says: November 19, 2007

    Curse of The Golden Dragon,well,i hear it only,because so many many people comment on it,but also hear most of commentaries are negative.Jay Chou has no talent in acting.he is a standard of the fashion and has many young funs in china,but i don’t like that~

  2. 2 luna6 Says: November 13, 2007

    Well let’s take it numerically.

    The population of China is what 1.3 billion?

    The highest grossing Chinese film in 2006 was Curse of The Golden Dragon, which made roughly $40 million. The average ticket price ranged $4 - $10 in China, so let’s set it at the low end of $4. That would equal 10 million people that saw the film. “Getting Home” is a much smaller film, so let’s say the film had only 1 million viewers and let’s also tack on 5 million more who saw it on video. A grand total of 6 million viewers out 1.3 billion people.

    That would leave you with a 0.45% chance of having seen the film.

  3. 1 dysigner Says: November 13, 2007

    haha,a chinese has never watch this film—me…