Coming
Home
(2014/Sony Blu-ray)
Picture:
A Sound: B Extras: B Film: B+
Lu
(Daoming Chen), after 13 years of exile in a Chinese labor camp,
returns home to his wife Feng (international star Li Gong) and
daughter only to find his wife has amnesia and no longer living with
her. As he tries to re-enter their lives Feng is unable to recognize
him, but Lu is determined to win her back with reminders of why she
fell in love with him in the beginning in Yimou Zhang's Coming
Home
(2014).
Lu
was imprisoned for being a political activist during Mao's Cultural
Revolution. 10 years later, he broke out but then was brought back
when his own daughter reported him in and he was forcefully taken
away again. Because of that incident, Feng became traumatized and
could no long remember Lu and for the next 3 years her daughter
carried the guilt that she cause her mother to forget her father and
was throw out from her home by her mother. Lu returns home to play
the father that was never there, only to discover the hardships they
went over over the years. As he struggles to repair the damage, he
faces the possibility things could never return to the way
before.
This was a drama filled film about family values and
political loyalties. Your own kin, flesh and blood would betray you
out of fear of being blacklisted by the government, but it is also
about a quiet resilience, how Chinese were taught to endure all and
eventually make peace with your own karma. Everything you are is
what you make and what the government or those in political power
thinks you deserve.
The
1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer comes from a
Sony CineAlta F65 HD camera and is looking really good for a camera
know for being so cold in its image reproduction, but impresses
throughout just the same, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1
lossless mix is a mixdown from the Dolby Atmos 11.1 theatrical
release in its best screenings, though was also available in
Sonics-DDP, advanced sound for IMAX releases.
This has a rich, solid soundfield throughout, but one wonders if
were missing a bit something. Extras
include a feature-length audio commentary track, Toronto Film
Festival Q&A, and trailers.
-
Ricky Chiang
