To Live

Released May 18, 1994

2h 5m

Drama

List

87%

23 Reviews

Tomatometer

96%

5,000+ Ratings

Audience Score

Fugui's (Ge You) gambling leads him to lose everything, including his wife, Jiazhen (Gong Li), and his home. Over the following decades, he struggles to live as a peasant. He tries joining a theater troupe, and then he enlists in the Chinese army in hopes of being a good citizen. Yet, just as things get better -- and Jiazhen and their baby daughter return to him -- the Cultural Revolution begins and tragedy continues to strike his family. Despite numerous hardships, Fugui never gives up hope.

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Critics Consensus

To Live (Huo zhe) offers a gut-wrenching overview of Chinese political upheaval through the lens of one family's unforgettable experiences.

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Jonathan Rosenbaum

Chicago Reader

His film grows progressively in meaning and resonance as it develops. Highly recommended.

Apr 11, 2019

Full Review

Robert Horton

Film Comment Magazine

It's a film of handsome backdrops and often complexly comic scenes, but also of stultifying pointlessness.

Apr 10, 2018

Full Review

Lisa Schwarzbaum

Entertainment Weekly

Rated: A

Sep 7, 2011

Full Review

Brian Eggert

Deep Focus Review

There seems to be a commentary and critique hidden in To Live's intertextuality and symbolism, which add to the film's pleasures in the grand epic style.

Rated: 4/4

Feb 20, 2022

Full Review

Dennis Schwartz

Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews

It rushes through history as if it were firemen rushing to a fire.

Rated: C+

Feb 15, 2008

Full Review

Pablo Villaça

Cinema em Cena

Acompanhar a conturbada vida poltica chinesa entre as dcadas de 40 e 70 atravs de uma perspectiva intimista uma idia inteligente e promissora. Infelizmente, parte da fora se perde em funo do roteiro excessivamente melodramtico.

Rated: 3/5

Mar 29, 2006

Full Review

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Ace W

To Live (活着) is an incredible drama and a reverent historical portrait of life throughout modern Chinese history. This film rivals (and exceeds) its American counterpart in every way. Fugui and Jiazhen's lives sear themselves deeply itself into our minds and hearts. Truly, this film is an instant classic.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

12/15/23

Full Review

Ms. L

This movie was simply perfection...dark yet beautiful and full of gems

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

11/10/23

Full Review

Chrissie Q

The pinnacle of Chinese film history

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

01/13/23

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freeson w

To Live is a surprisingly optimistic family drama set in a bleak period of Chinese history - the pre-Communist, and Communist China era of the 40s, 50s, and 60s. Personally, I think it might be a tad too sunny in its view of the struggles of the period, but to see any depiction of that period on film is powerful.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

William L

If I had a nickel for every highly regarded, early-90s, Chinese-language film following a few select individuals through decades of social and political tumult using traditional puppetry as a major motif, I'd have two nickels. Which isn't a lot, but it's weird that it happened twice (it's Hou Hsiao-hsien's 1993 film, The Puppetmaster, for the curious). To Live is one of a surprisingly substantial contingent of epic films to have been released in the final decade of the 20th century chronicling the development of Chinese history from the traditionalism of the Republic through the chaos and nationalism of the Great Leap Forward, alongside highly acclaimed works like The Blue Kite and Farewell My Concubine. This movement seems to have been the result of an increasingly relaxed atmosphere as China became more influential on the global stage and a generation of filmmakers that had been raised in the tumult came into the resources to get such projects up and running. However, virtually all were formally rebuffed in China itself, raking in awards abroad as the Communist Party rejected all historical criticism by banning the films from distribution and spreading hate against their messaging. Director Zhang Yimou submitted the film to Cannes without government approval and reaped th recognition, but it was 'dangerous' thematic touches and what was perceived as anti-state behavior that saw ambitious projects like these quashed in years to come as censorship came back into play. As a part of a larger, historically reflective film movement, To Live is not particularly unique in its criticism of the blind idolatry of the Communist movement or the policies that ignored actual human well-being in the name of political goals. However, it does present them in a particularly convincing way, developing a familial bond with evolving characters and using a story that allows them to express their flaws or misconceptions rather than to simply be virtuous vessels adrift on a Forrest Gump-esque stream of historical events. While the narrative may lean toward tragedy frequently to express the danger of the political instability that they endure through, there is plenty of genuine tenderness and sincerity to given them a sense of authenticity and care, glimmers of happiness and resilience despite the crushing weight of change that overlooks their suffering. In my opinion, one of the best of its kind, as a human-focused film that runs contrary to the Party line of the mid-20th century. (4/5)

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

07/18/22

Full Review

Audience Member

You want to understand more about China and Chinese communism? This is the film you should see. It shows the struggles of one family through the Chinese Civil War, The Great Leap Forward, The Cultural Revolution, and beyond. Each of these periods had their own horrors; but of all of these, The Cultural Revolution was the worst. "Out WIth the Olds and In WIth the News" was a major motto of The Cultural Revolution; which sounds like a good idea at first. But if you consider for a moment allowing all your college students to run everything in the country, you will soon realize that this is a concept of complete madness. The film shows us this madness in painstaking form. Hospitals without doctors; universities without professors; young people running everything; complete chaos. Zhang Yimou, the greatest director in the history of Chinese film, and one of the greatest of all directors from all countries, was a master with the camera; and he captures all of the misery that China went through during these decades. Gong Li, the greatest Chinese actress of all time, who would go on to make several other gems for Zhang, gives an Academy Award-level performance, as does the male lead, Ge You. This is one of best half-dozen films ever made in China. Don't miss it.

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

02/22/23

Full Review

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Yimou Zhang

Director

You Ge

Xu Fugui

Gong Li

Xu Jiazhen

Niu Ben

Town Chief

Tao Guo

Chunsheng

Wu Jiang

Wan Erxi

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Synopsis

Fugui's (Ge You) gambling leads him to lose everything, including his wife, Jiazhen (Gong Li), and his home. Over the following decades, he struggles to live as a peasant. He tries joining a theater troupe, and then he enlists in the Chinese army in hopes of being a good citizen. Yet, just as things get better -- and Jiazhen and their baby daughter return to him -- the Cultural Revolution begins and tragedy continues to strike his family. Despite numerous hardships, Fugui never gives up hope.

Director: Yimou Zhang
Screenwriter: Wei Lu, Hua Yu
Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Company
Production Co: ERA International
Genre: Drama
Original Language: Chinese
Release Date (Theaters): May 18, 1994, Original
Release Date (DVD): Jul 1, 2003
Box Office (Gross USA): $2.2M
Runtime: 2h 5m
Sound Mix: Dolby, Surround, Stereo