31 January 2021

So Long, My Son (China, 2019)

 
Yaoyun and his wife Liyun once had a happy family - until their son drowned playing by a reservoir. And so Yaojun and Liyun leave their home and plunge into the big city, although nobody knows them there and they cannot even understand the local dialect. Their adopted son Liu Xing does not offer them the comfort they had hoped for either. Defiantly rejecting his 'foreign' parents, he one day disappears altogether. The married couple are repeatedly enmeshed in their memories.

So Long, My Son has everything that matters for me in a film. The outstanding performances by the actors hits every mark, and the actress who plays the mother is especially good. This story also demanded that high level acting to be as effective as it could be. So Long, My Son is an epic family drama about that big gap in our lives when someone passes away, set against the backdrop of China's tumultuous history and changing society. We're jumping back in time to get glimpses of events that will have such strong impact many years later, and after following the couple for so long the emotional weight of some scenes are absolutely devastating. All this would have amounted to a great film, but we also have the beautiful cinematography and composed camerawork which do huge favors for the heavy story. A long sit at barely over three hours, but well worth your time if you value true to life storytelling and what you get out of watching a film.  


Genre: Drama

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