"A melodramatic story that is not the least bit melodramatic. Spanning 4 decades, Zhang Yimou’s “To Live (aka Lifetimes) is an exploratory masterpiece that transcends its political inferences and rests heavily on it’s real meaning; the importance of family. Yimou includes previous themes of survival, perseverance and the resilience of the human spirit also found in many of his other films, ‘Not One Less’, ‘The Road Home’ and ‘The Story of Qui Ju’.

Not unlike Abbas Kirostami’s films, the simplicity and elegance portray many hidden themes that hit with deep and lasting impact. Addiction, death, separation, birth, hardship, friendship, war, fortune are all explored with an adept level of un-cloying sentimental balance. A powerful script with excellent acting (Yimou’s wife Gong Li and Ge You) makes this a near perfect film (out of )… but lackluster ERA DVD. The picture quality was slightly better than ERA’s ‘Raise the Red Lantern’ (although the films colors not as vibrant, it was less fuzzy) but the subtitles were fraught with multiple spelling errors and dialogue inaccuracies (evidenced by my wife). I am also totally angered at the lack of sub-titles for the title cards. Although there are only a few they are extremely important to the story, but instead of translation we just see some Chinese characters on the screen. Arghhh!!

How ‘Pulp Fiction’ beat out this film at Cannes in 94’ is beyond me. I’m equally perplexed by Ebert’s 3 ½ / 4 rating. This film will easily move into my Top 10 Foreign language films of all time in my next update. I have never been disappointed by a Zhang Yimou film and this may actually end up being my favorite and he is quickly becoming my favorite director."

 

Gary W. Tooze

 

"The subtlety, potency, and majesty of his work are undeniable. Like 'Red Sorghum', 'Ju Dou', 'Raise the Red Lantern', 'The Story of Qui Ju', this film demonstrates a restless, courageous virtuosity; exhilarating and ingenious, it moves in ways that most films can't even imagine".

Cynthia Fuchs (excerpt).