Subtitles:

English, English (SDH) French, Portuguese, Spanish, none

 

 

The Film:

A thoughtful exploration of the nature of love and identity, Coming Home has something in common with Still Alice in its portrait of a woman who has lost her memories but remains intellectually alert and retains the emotional core of her selfhood. Gong Li is magnificent as always, though her performance here is deftly understated, often letting her character fade into the background in scenes where she sits at the centre. The actress' lengthy career and the romantic bond this has formed for many viewers makes Lu's altered relationship to her all the more poignant. But perhaps there is more than one way to look at this. If there is no way back, might there yet be a way forward?

Excerpt from Eye For Film located HERE

 

Zhang Yimou and Gong Li constitute one of the great director-actress pairings in movie history. In the 1980s and ’90s they worked together on a remarkable run of movies — including “Red Sorghum,” “Raise the Red Lantern,” “Shanghai Triad” and “To Live” — that were central to the resurgence of Chinese cinema and made international stars of both of them. Ms. Gong, noble, fragile and indomitable, was for Mr. Zhang a muse, an alter ego and an emblem of China’s suffering and resilience at important moments in the nation’s history.

“Coming Home,” only their second collaboration in the past 20 years, reunites them in an intimate, politically resonant story set in the final years and the immediate aftermath of the Cultural Revolution. Ms. Gong plays Feng Wanyu, a teacher in a provincial city whose husband, Lu Yanshi (Chen Daoming), a professor, has been sent to a labor camp in a purge of “rightists.” Feng Wanyu lives with their teenage daughter, Dan Dan (Zhang Huiwen), a dancer who dreams of playing the lead in the ballet “The Red Detachment of Women.” Her father’s pariah status threatens her ambition, and she is eager to denounce him when local officials demand it.

Excerpt from the NY Times located HERE

Image :    NOTE: The below Blu-ray captures were taken directly from the Blu-ray disc.

Coming Home looks strong on Blu-ray from Sony. It is easy to see by some of the vibrant, rich colors in the opening scenes that this is a deft transfer in the 1080P resolution. It appears shot on 4K digital and printed in 35mm gaining the visual attributes of that process looking very crisp in close-ups, pristinely clean and relatively smooth in-motion. This dual-layered Blu-ray, is probably a strong replication of the theatrical film's image quality. No noise or other issues whatsoever.

CLICK EACH BLU-RAY CAPTURE TO SEE ALL IMAGES IN FULL 1920X1080 RESOLUTION

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sony use a DTS-HD Master 5.1 surround in Mandarin at 2149 kbps (16-bit). There are sparse effects - rain and dancing etc. that gain some acknowledged separation. The music is by Qigang Chen (who scored the previous two Zhang Yimou films) and it supports the period and cultural specifics of the film. There are foreign-language DUBs, an audio descriptive track and there are optional subtitles and my Oppo has identified it as being a region FREE.

Extras :

 

 

BOTTOM LINE:
Coming Home is more poignant, touching work from the director.  Gong Li is also brilliant and this is very strong political-oriented cinema exposing an ideology, family loyalty and  culture that we have trouble appreciating and understanding. This Sony Blu-ray provides a decent HD presentation and the extras give it further value. Zhang Yimou fans should definitely indulge - this seems a return to his older, classic, cinema that we are enamored of. Absolutely recommended!

Gary Tooze

March 18th, 2016