Jami Bernard
Gary Dretzka
Leonard Klady
David Poland
Doug Pratt
Ray Pride
Stu VanAirsdale
..Gary
Dretzka
..Leonard
Klady
..David
Poland
..Ray
Pride
Together
Directed by: Chen Kaige___________________________________
There's a disarming quality to Chen Kaige's new film Together that might confuse some into believing that it's merely intended to pull and pluck on the heartstrings. It is undeniable that this yarn of a musical protégé and his self-sacrificing peasant father plays well and simply as a sentimental yarn. However, the film is also a truly subversive work, rife with irony and a scathing eye glancing on the rapidly changing landscape of modern China.The title itself resonates with contradiction. On the one hand it is a reference to family. However, father Liu Cheng (Lui Peiqi) and son Liu Xiaochun (Tang Yun) have only each other and thus the notion of union is precarious in light of the man's willingness to give up everything that his son might advance in station.
The other significance is musical. The concept of "together" in that arena is to be at the service of a piece or its composer or interpreter. Yet, the film's focus is on a violin soloist, suggesting that its director and co-writer has some mischief in mind with his story.
Liu Cheng has brought his son from an Eastern rural area to audition for a musical scholarship in Beijing. While the boy plays well, he fails to make the cut. However, the father overhears the judges praise his son and realizes their decision was based more on politics than talent. Though unworldly and minimally educated, he is savvy and determined.
Shut out from the school, he convinces one of the judges - the eccentric Prof. Jiang (Wang Zhiween) - to become the boy's private tutor. They find lodging through the good graces of Lili (Chen Hong), a call girl they meet at the train station, and the elder Liu takes on work as a bicycle delivery man.
While the thrust of the film is finding a place for the boy that is fulfilling and secure, that journey will not unfold in a straight line. The curves along the way are not jarring or invasive; they are simply the verisimilitudes of life and, rather than diverting its forward momentum, provides it with texture and context.
The film explores an odd niche not only because of its rarefied musical pursuit but in the way a non-biological family unit evolves. The father represents one part of China that is the past while Lili is here and now and the boy may be its future. For Chen Kaige, none exists particularly well without the others and each possesses a narrow perspective by dint of education or experience.
Beijing itself is even a character. The historic location of the Forbidden City is also a venue where one can get lost at a seemingly soulless shopping mall.
The humanity of the piece embraces all contradictions. Together is so beautifully crafted and performed that one might mistake the work as simple or easy - two criticisms that are abjectly untrue. Neither is it sentimental, possessing a conclusion that reverses all that has come before. Yet, the film has been made in such a clever manner to hide its seams that we are disarmed and held rapt by all the notes of the maestro's human symphony.
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Release
Date: May 30, 2003
Rated: R
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Starring: Chen Hong, Tang Yun, Liu Peiqi,
Lui Peiqi, Cheng Qian
Produced by: Chen Hong, Yang Buting, Yan Xiaoming, Li Bolun, Chen Kaige,
Joo-ik Lee, Bolun Li, Xiaoming Yan, Buting Yang
Written by: Chen Kaige, Xue Xiao Lu, Xiao Lu Xue
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Distributor:
MGM/UA
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Review Date: May 30, 2003
