"The Road Home" - A Review

“The Road Home” is a 1999 film by director, Yimou Zhang, starring Ziyi Zhang (whom I love and always excited to see any movie she’s in) as Zhao Di, a village belle I should say. I would also say that it is a simple but endearing love-story between two young people who endured long separation to finally be with each other. So the film is the recollection by Yusheng Lou (Honglei Sun), of the love-story between his mother, Di (as she was called in the film by all who knew her), and his father, Changyu Luo (Hao Zheng).

The story took place in a village in Northern China where 18-year-old Di lived with her elderly mother. Changyu, 20, was a city kid who came to the village to help build the village’s only school and to teach the children. Changyu believed in the education of all children and teaching was what he loved doing.

 At the time of this story, Changyu had died unexpectedly due to a heart disease and Di’s wishes were to take him on foot from the city to the village, to commemorate the memories of that road that shaped their love for each other.

What I found to be great about this movie (remember I said it was a simple love-story) was the soundtrack. It came on when Yusheng began the story of how his parents met and continued till the end of the movie.



All the elements of the soundtrack moved the film along perfectly, creating moods and emotions at appropriate times, as well as lending to the continuity of the scenes where there may have been jump-cuts and noisy transitions. I forgot that the film started with Yusheng going home for his dad's funeral and found myself immersed in the love-story. I kept rooting for the couple and hoped that they were together in the end. I actually exhaled when that happened.

Ok, you got me! I watched it twice, back-to-back, and since I love the soundtrack and the star of the movie, well, you’ve read enough. Cheers to love and all that we endure to see it come to fruition! Enjoy the full movie below.