Sunflower

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.

I was born in 80'S in China but love displayed in this film still moved me for the same experience of my past when I grew in my aunt's family and there something gap between me and my relatives. So it's a better reflection of real life even than the zenith sort of film.

Joan isn't dealt with Hollywood's A-budget films for her independent film spirits. And here Joan is precisely show her talent of acting for this mother's features even with her whole body and every organ sensitively though it's little pity her scenes are not that many.

It's too bad for me that I could not comment on it with words, and as Chinese I appreciate Joan Chen.I hope I can see more and more good films for us.

Sunflower is everything a first-rate film experience can be. It is a moving and wonderful story and beautiful to watch. It engaged me in every moment. The music is perfect, the casting and acting uniformly outstanding, the technical and aesthetic skills and intuitive choices of the writer, director and crew all add up to a superior artistic and emotional experience.

The story of the struggle between a son and his father is universal, (but not always limited to sons). The historical, familial and societal structure in which the action takes place are uniquely Chinese. It is a multi-leveled experience to watch; the deeply personal, the historical/societal and the universal. To one degree or another, we can all relate to or have engaged in behaviors that take place in the context of this story, with friends as well as family.

It is food for lingering thought and conversations about families, China, and how we are affected by the rapidly changing societies we live in.

It is, as the person who sat behind said on his way down the aisle, "Well, that's one of the best movies I'll ever see." I agree.

Yang Zhang's film 'Sunflower' explores the changing face of China over thirty years, seen through the prism of a stormy father-son relationship. The authority of family has always been important in traditional Chinese culture, so this is a believable conflict in a story of China entering the modern age. However, the movie is not especially subtle, the father figure does little more than assert that others should do what he asks them, and the use of Western music is disappointing, it doesn't feel like the soundtrack of these characters' lives. I still enjoyed the film, the story is never forced and it gives one a flavour of how one might imagine life in China to be. But at heart it's a conventional tale.

To every son,father plays an important role in his life. To every father,son is his hope and imagine. When the father lost his own dream of drawing,he placed the unfinished dream to his son,with the faith that it's good for the son.However,the son didn't understand the father's doing.He was prevented from playing with his young fellow,and since then,it's hard to drop the hateness to the force from his father.

The huge changes of the China society is clearly expressed throughout the movie.Every Chinese family was developing contemporarily.The father and the son were growing up as well.But the relationship between the father and his son,is still complicated.The love is always companioned with pain.Maybe everybody has a similar experience with this.

It is said that the inspiration of the movie at first come from a letter from the director's father.The letter used to make the director and all the crew cry.Watching the movie,I could appreciate the sincere heart of the director,especially during the portray of the childhood.

The movie was both opened and ended with sunflowers,which,I think ,may mean the forever beautiful bless from the father to his son,his blood-linked imagine.The feeling of watching the movie,is just like that of browsing old pictures in a family album. Those memories are sweet as well as sad.When everybody understand each other,the parents' hair has become white,and the old architecture has been broken up.