To Live (1994)

This recounting of my filmwatching experience and imagined reverie about having a potential discussion on To Live with its director Zhang Yimou were jotted down shortly after completing the film during the summer between my sophomore and junior years of college. My overall rating for the film was 4 stars out of a possible 4. It was the 228th feature-length film to receive my highest rating distinction.

This time, I promise I just have a couple quick notes. My youngest brother and I watched this film. Well, he actually came into the room about 30 minutes into my watching of To Live. Of what he saw, he said that it was definitely 4 stars. I agree, wholeheartedly. I wish that one day I will be able to meet Zhang Yimou, the director of this marvelous film, and tell him how I feel about it and the newness that my eyes have after seeing this work.

Let me set this hypothetical scenario -- I am at the Cannes Film Festival, where my third feature film is invited to premiere. Upon learning that Zhang Yimou would be in attendance some three months earlier, I have prepared a series of comments for him about To Live with the intention of reciting them in Mandarin, his native tongue: “Hello, it is an honor to meet you, Mr. Zhang. I cannot begin to express the pleasure and humility meeting you has given me. I would like to tell you, if you will let me, about my feelings on your masterpiece To Live. When I was twenty, I watched this film with my youngest brother, who was 14 at the time. We were both blown away by it. He was brimming with intellectual and commercial joy from seeing such a fine film. For me, this is one of the most powerful films that I have ever encountered and watched, both emotionally and politically. I treasure the experience that I had watching the film with him and the new ways that we were able to bond and connect through the mutual respect, wonder, and awe that we had for this film.

"Now, as a director in my own right, I enjoy having people discuss my films. I feel that the film medium is nothing without the discussions, debates, and dialogues that creators and viewers alike have regarding the art form and its pieces. However, films can touch people on many levels, and your 1994 film touched me in ways that I had never explored or even thought existed prior to my viewing. I hold To Live as an inspirational standard for my filmmaking career, just like I do with Hollywood's finest picture, Casablanca. If I can give the world a film that is half as strong politically or emotionally, let alone both, than To Live, then I will have achieved one of my most unattainable goals and will be content with the rest of my career, no matter the path it takes. Thank you for To Live and thank you for listening to these few words I prepared with the hope of meeting you.”