Dying to Survive

This is one of the best Chinese movies in history. The film discusses the grey areas under Chinese drug control and the boundary between law and human feelings. The whole movie has promoted the Chinese society's reflection on the control of drugs for the treatment of severe diseases and the excessively high price. to some extent, it also satirizes the inadequacy of the Chinese government in related issues. in fact, after the movie hit, people enthusiastically discussed related issues on the internet, which has also prompted the Chinese government to further make more positive changes to the inadequacy of current drug control. Such movie themes are rare under the current control system of the Chinese government for movie and TV creation themes. I don't understand at all that one of the comments written by IMDB user thebigsick thinks that the theme of this movie is a cliche, and even thinks that this movie has won good public praise and attention purely by means of propaganda and hype. Sorry, I can't understand why you think that way. The theme of this movie alone is worth thumbs up. Almost all Chinese movies will use a lot of online publicity before and at the beginning of their release. this is a commercial movie, there is no problem with doing so. However, not all movies will gain a good reputation because of hype. if the movie itself is very bad, and only depends on a lot of publicity and hype in the early stage. in less than three days, it will get a lot of bad reviews. Because the audience is not a fool. This movie scored 8.9 points on the well-known Chinese film review website douban movie ( you can understand it as China's IMDB, douban movie is a platform with a lot of credibility in China. many people will refer to douban's score before deciding whether to spend money on a movie,only a very small number of Chinese movies can score more than 7 points on douban ).Within a week of this movie's release, it has accumulated 1.8 billion RMB ( about 27 million us dollars ) in box office. Whether you like it or not, this proves that it is a good movie. So the user thebigsick didn't understand the real meaning of this movie at all, or why Chinese people think it is a good movie.

A good movie. Some clever parts and an unusual set of characters make for a good watch. I recommend this movie. Some cliche parts but it's based on a true story so fair enough. Quite a feel good movie with some roller coaster emotional parts. Best movie I've seen in a while. Having said that it's not exactly phenomenal or to be held up against the greats but forgetting comparison with other better movies it does well as a standalone movie.

This film changed my perception towards Xu Zheng as he delivers a truly powerful performance. No doubt the powerful subject helps him, as this is a great story to be made into a film. A milestone movie for China as the subject is impactful and authentic (mostly), and most importantly allowed to be shown. The character development is also very well done and supported by a cast of memorable co-stars. A movie that does not try to reach the stars, and just really wants to tell a great story in its own ways, something many other Chinese films needs to learn from.

It's a shame that this movie doesn't get the international recognition that it deserves. Because unaffordable medicine is a global problem not that of China alone. It's also a problem in first world countries even those with a sophisticated welfare system. It just so happens that it hits third world countries harder because of the wealth gap.

Pharmaceutical companies, mostly western ones holds a monopoly position in the industry and claims that the high costs is needed to fund research of new medicine. How much of that is true is to be debated. Especially when most pharmaceutical companies are listed in the stock exchange, one is left to wonder why the funds for research cannot be collected through stock and shares. And the assumption is easily made that most of the money goes directly as profit into the pockets of the management. Earning money over the bodies of others as they say....

Well done of these chinese film producers to make this issue go public and open for debate, and many other countries should be ashamed for not addressing this subject. The movie is very raw and well shot, with some comedic elements and some very emotional scenes. All of the actors brought their A game and it made you feel as if you were watching a documentary instead of dramatic version of the story which is based on real event.

The overal message is clear, sometimes one have no choice to go against the mainstream, in order to do some good. For all the people concerned they meant well.

Common story for most poor families, cannot afford drug price, finding their own ways to survive. It's illegal but understandable. Drug monopolies like Novartis are way more evil than Monsanto.