Perspective - Chinese Cinema Today and Tomorrow
The Road
(Fang Xiang Zhi Lu) by ZHANG Jiarui
China / Comedy / 2006 / 114'
Starring: ZHANG Jingchu (Li Chunfen) , FAN Wei (Lao Cui), NIE Yuan (Liu fendou)
Synopsis
The Road tells the story of a young and a little naive Lady over forty years. The character is played by the wonderful Zhang Jingchu, discovered in Berlin, in Gu Changwei's Peacock, (Silver Bear 2005). Ticket-puncher on the Xiangyang road, faithful in collective longing, she will go through the evolution of the century, with a bus, as the symbol of the sands of time.
The Film
From the young liberated China with its dented ways to the noisy, pitiless and packed megalopolis, The Road goes through the deep transformations of contemporary China. Born in Sichhuan, Zhang Jiarui is famous for his usually light and happy films about minorities: When Ruoma was 17 (2002) and Hu Yao Bride in Shangri-la (2005). With The Road, he tackles a difficult subject with a lot of tact. The good editing and a photography which emphasizes the evolution of the narration, together with the acting of Zhang Jingchu and Fan Wei, who plays the bus driver, makes The Road a film well worth seeing.