Film Review: Together

[Rob_Hugo@PortNW]

Excellent film! Two Thumbs Up!

A wonderful film for middle school and high school. Be warned have some tissues on hand. The story revolves around thirteen year old Xiaochun and his father Liu Cheng. Xiaochun is a violin prodigy. He and his father live in a small rural village in China. His father and the entire village recognize Xiaochun's talents and his father decides to take him to Beijing to perform in a competition.

When they arrive in Beijing they both are amazed at the size of the city and it's modern wonders. Xiaochun gets seperated from his father for awhile where he meets Lili. Lilii is the beautiful heroine of the story who gets involved with wealthy married men to exist. Xiaochun becomes hopelessly infatuated with Lili especially when he finds out she lives in the same neighborhood where he is staying.

Xiaochun and his father reunite and he performs in the competition. He is by far the best in the competition; however, he comes in fifth, His father overhears Professor Jiang say that the prizes always go to those who have the most money. Soon Liu Cheng convinces Professor Jiang to teach Xiaochun. However, Professor Jiang is carrying a lot of emotional baggage. He never cleans his house and he picks up every stray cat he can find. although Xiaochun respects his teacher he is bothered by his lifestyle and his lack of interest towards teaching him.

Meanwhile Liu Cheng is sacrificing much to keep Xiaochun in school. He takes a job delivering lunches. Lili who is trapped in bad relationships in order to survive becomes good friends with Xiaochun. Unknowing that Xiaochun is infatuated with her.

One day Liu Cheng enters a concert hall and hears a young violinist play to a standing ovation. He finds out that her professor is named Professor Yu. Liu Cheng realizes that Professor Jiang can only take Xiaochun so far. He then convinces Professor Yu to teach Xiaochun. Xiaochun is torn between the loyalties between his old teacher. He begins to question his father's decision making creating tension with traditional father and son roles.

Tensions mount even more when Professor Yu begins pitting Xiaochun against his star pupil. Tensions increase further when Professor Yu feels that Liu Cheng is a distraction and ask him to return to his small village for the sake of his son's studies. Liu Cheng agrees to leave on the night of Xiaochun's breakout performance without seeing his son perform.

That is all you get. I don't want to ruin the surprise ending. This film is a coming of age story as well as a father and son drama. It was made be Chinese filmmaker Chen Kaige best known for Farewell My Concubine, Temptress Moon, and The Emperor and the Assassin. I thoroughly enjoyed the film. I became completely caught up in the characters and twist and turns of the film. Highly recommended for a music class as well as any class that may want to highlight the Chinese conflict with traditional roles and Western influence

[Anonymous]

I saw this film nearly two years ago and was also very impressed by the performances, the emphasis on the arts (music), and most of all, what really floored me was the emotional intensity of the performers. I have noticed that in many of the Asian films, the relationships between different characters, regardless of their personal relationships, is presented as cool and distant. A friend of mine thinks that it is a matter of style, but I have always felt that such a decision renders the film difficult to connect to. In "Together", watching the father and his son exchange expressions of frustration and to see actual verbal matches, led to me to becoming involved in the storyline.

I have noticed that the figures of concubines or ladies of the night appear frequently in Asian films. Is this coincidental? The young boy's friend is a wonderful character, but I wondered why she had to be typecast in this manner? As I mentioned before, this is a film that reaches beyond the usual restricted and cool portrayals we see in Asian films. Is it necessary to go to extremes, though?

[Anonymous]

East Asia inTransition Film: a documentary by the southern center for international studies is another must see film for all History teachers.It is a 5-part videotape faturing excerps from the 1989,1991,1992,1993,1994,and 1995 meetings with former US secretaries of state,defense,and Treasury,World leaders and US ambassadors to the United Nations. It talks about the geography,religions,and the economies of this region.It also outlines about politics, human rights violations, modern life styles and US interests in in East Asia.
If you need to borrow just eamil me.

[Anonymous]

I had heard about this film from classmate Susan Pavelka-Gregg, and we now have it as part of our PV High School library collection. But it wasn't until last night that I saw it. I didn't realize it was "three box of tissue" film (as my husband described it handing me the box of tissue), and saw that others felt that way about it, too (reading through these postings). I have recommended it to our high school music teacher. With the Music Theory AP tests out of the way, it might be a good opportunity to use the time to share this film. I feel comfortable with it as a grade 8 through 12 film, although it could be shown in a family setting with younger children, especially if they are musically inclined. There's constant action and plot progress, so if you look down for a few seconds (as I did--really, seconds), you can miss important things, especially since it is dubbed in English. There's a lot packed into this movie as far as plot (great for high school students). In the beginning, I couldn't understand why the romantic couple was introduced, and I really didn't like it since I thought it was going to be purely about the boy's musical growth. The film shows rural life (brought back memories of our trip to China walking through the alleyways of Lijiang and our meal in the hutongs of Beijing) and the wealth of the big city life (professor's home). But the focus around the father's search for a way to cultitvate the boy's abilities and his assertiveness in his efforts was the focus of the movie. And with the cat-loving music teacher and the beautiful lady as other subplots, the film brings it all together so beautifully at the end. A film is really good to me if I think about it afterward, and I did. The film offers lots of discussion topics (boy's attitude toward his father up until he discovers the "secret;" the reasons for the father's decision to leave before the concert; the jealous girl's motive in revealing the "secret" to the boy the day of the concert; corruption depicted in the film about music judging; "what do you think happened after the film" question; lessons learned by the beautiful lady and the cat-loving teacher, etc. A tightly-woven story with a beautiful message.

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