Fugui (You Ge) is addicted to gambling and it all comes to a head
when he loses his house and family because of it. His wife eventually comes
back to him with their two children but he’s taken off to join the Nationalist
army, and then the Communist army. Life is tremendously difficult for Fugui and
his family and it seems they rarely have anything go well for them but they
continue to bear it, somehow.
What a depressing film, my god. Jiazhen (Li Gong) leaves Fugui and
takes their daughter because he cannot stop gambling. That same night he loses
the family home, and shortly afterwards his father dies because of it. Jiazhen
comes back after having their second child and helps to look after his sick
mother. But then Fugui is carted off to the army and his mother dies while he’s
gone. When he comes back he finds his daughter is now a mute and has difficulty
hearing due to a fever she had. Not long later, his son is accidentally killed
by his friend who was in the army with him. Once his daughter is grown, she
marries a nice boy and is pregnant. But when she gives birth to her son there are
complications and she dies. Just nothing goes right at all. And yet Fugui is
convinced his grandson will have a better time and that things will always get
better. The will to live is so strong, I just can’t imagine it at all. Despite
all the heartache and difficult times they’ve had, he still has hope for the
future.
The acting was brilliant. The devastation that Jiazhen and
Fugui show when their children die just seemed so real. Neither of them seemed particularly
interested in the Communism side of things, they just did whatever it took to carry on.
8/10
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