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      To Live

      1994, Drama, 2h 5m

      23 Reviews 5,000+ Ratings

      What to know

      Critics Consensus

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

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      To Live  Photos

      To Live (1994) To Live (1994) To Live (1994) To Live (1994)

      Movie Info

      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.

      • Genre: Drama

      • Original Language: Chinese

      • Director: Yimou Zhang

      • Producer: Fu-Sheng Chiu, Funhong Kow, Christophe Tseng

      • Writer: Wei Lu, Hua Yu

      • Release Date (Theaters):  original

      • Release Date (DVD):

      • Box Office (Gross USA): $2.2M

      • Runtime:

      • Distributor: Samuel Goldwyn Company

      • Production Co: ERA International

      • Sound Mix: Dolby, Surround, Stereo

      Cast & Crew

      You Ge
      Gong Li
      Niu Ben
      Tao Guo
      Wu Jiang
      Liu Tianchi
      Deng Fei
      Wei Lu
      Hua Yu
      Jiping Zhao
      Yue Lü
      Yuan Du
      Juiping Cao

      News & Interviews for To Live

      Critic Reviews for To Live

      Audience Reviews for To Live

      • Nov 25, 2010

        This was really good. Li Gong is recognizable from Hero (she's actually been in a lot of things). The scenes of mourning are painful to watch, because it is so real and honest. If you enjoyed other works by this director, (Hero, House of Flying Daggers and Curse of The Golden Flower being the most famous) you will probably enjoy this....no martial arts, however. This is a moving drama with some interesting history. Well done film.

        Super Reviewer
      • Apr 20, 2010

        [color=red]"To Live" is an emotionally powerful epic about a family living in China from the 1940's to the Cultural Revolution of the 1960's. I felt like this movie gave me the most realistic impression of living under Mao Zedong during this tumultuous period of time.[/color]

        walter m Super Reviewer
      • Oct 22, 2009

        <a href="http://tinypic.com" target="_blank"><img src="http://i32.tinypic.com/27yrew0.jpg" border="0" alt="Image and video hosting by TinyPic"></a> To Live was my fourth movie that I have seen from this excellent Chinese director Yimou Zhang.It was beautiful and so real and heartbreaking at times, you could feel the pain of the lead characters. Yimou traveled the viewer through three decades in the movie making us understand the people, their tragedy, respect, and adoration for the Communist. Gong Li was beautiful and I have seen her in the other movies of this same director. The movie was about this family going through life, surviving tragedies but they continue 'Living', That was the beauty of the film.

        Super Reviewer
      • Sep 27, 2008

        An awesome foreign language movie that I watched in a history class.

        Super Reviewer

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