Admirable film.

Although it has its amusing moments, in eneral the plot does not convince.

The best films of this genre always show a path and provide a takeaway for being a better person.

Very good movie overall, highly recommended. Most of the negative reviews don't have any merit and are all pollitically based. Give this movie a chance at least, and it might give you a different perspective.

Since there are only eleven comments, so I felt the need to write another one.The acting are pretty good, especially the mother and the father. The makeup is bad for Joan Chen when she was supposed to be an old woman. It was quite obvious that she was wearing a wig. And the wrinkles on her face looked bad, too. On the other hand, whoever did the makeup for the father did a good job. The father looked right about his age.The ending was kind of strange. I don't see a reason for the father to disappear all of sudden with no particular reason.This movie is over 2 hours long. It is just too long. During the 30 years, many major political events happened right in Beijing, this movie did not mention any of them. Of course, it is understandable because the Chinese "socialist" government has a strict censorship. When will the government gave up its strict control on artists' creativity? We can only imagine how many wonderful artworks, movies could have been presented to the world. Whether they tried to avoid those political events or simply didn't care to mention them, that directly affect the movie, it made it too flat. There was no major ups and downs. There was no single moment which make you want to cry or feel happy for them.

It is so easy to see this film as a glimpse of China during a period of upheaval. We see the events of the era, notably Mao's death, the Gang of Four and their downfall, up to the era of small- and later large-scale capitalism. Focusing on changes in society and the impact on families, particularly one, in a small village causes us to lose sight of what this film is really about.Torn from his family and sent to a reeducation camp, Gengnian is determined to make up for the time he lost (six years) as a father. Like many fathers, and I include my own among them, he feels the need to be firm and instill discipline in his son; to guide him in the direction he "should" go. In this case, it is painting. You see so many American fathers in Gengnian, especially those who are children of the depression. You also see those fathers that live vicariously though their children and push them to excel even without asking if this is what they really want.The film gives us a glimpse of a changing China, but we also see family interaction in a way that we are not familiar with, and that alone makes it worthwhile. But, it is not a documentary; we should focus on our relationships with our fathers and sons, and we certainly will if we allow ourselves to be drawn into the film.Yang Zhang has given us something to really think about. With brilliant cinematography by Jong Lin (Bend it Like Beckham, Eat drink Man Woman), and an amazingly good performance by Joan Chen as the materialistic mother, it was a real treat.

I recently watched this brilliant piece of cinema and was blown away by it. It takes us on a 30 year journey from a boy to man and his relationship with his parents, especially his father who was sent to a work camp during Mao's cultural revolution and returns when the boy is seven. From this point in time father and son clash as to what each one expects of the other. The interpersonal relationships between father and son, mother and son , husband and wife and the friendship between the father and his neighbour are just wonderful. This film shows us that throughout the world father's and son's encounter the same dilemma's and parents have the same worries about their children where ever they live in the world. Superb. Well worth watching. It is beautifully shot, the screenplay is great and the acting is fantastic. What more could you want.

The English Name for this movie is Sunflower. I saw this at the Toronto Film Festival.This was a thoughtful piece of work and is definitely worth a look for an insightful dramatic tale in a Chinese setting -- with both family and society as key themes. I hope more movies like this get made!The story takes us through the life of an urban Chinese family -- the father becomes the art teacher and disciplinarian for his 'want-to-have-fun-with-the-town-kids' son. In broad strokes, we see the clash of father-son wills as each tries to get his own way. But the conflict is born out of an emotional pain as father's hands were crushed purposefully during the cultural revolution -- to prevent him from drawing anymore. How much more awful can you get? As the movie fast-forwards through time, we see the broad strokes transform as both son and father grow and continue their journey through life -- more conflict, more of an interesting view on the life they're going through. The artwork in this movie speaks volumes. The Sunflower imagery is moving. I'm choking up as I write this.FAMILY: The director was present and commented how society is based on family, and hence how looking at family relationships really allows you to examine society. For some reason, the close-up look at a family worked really well for me. Very nuanced writing and direction.EVOCATIVE OF REALITY: The timing of the key story events rooted in recent history made this story really come alive for me. As society influenced the characters, the characters reacted to society. This really gave the story a fresh dose of reality and gave me what really felt like a true insider's perspective on a set of experiences growing up in China.For me, this story made me reflect on my own family, my own life, and force me to examine some choices I've made in my past. It was a tad long, but still worth the time.