Peacock

Before I went to see this movie in Lithuanian non-Hollywood film festival Kino Pavasaris, I was warned by friends, that I must prepare to watch a very depressive film from China. And I'm wondering why it didn't seem depressive to me at all. Not a comedy, I must admit, but a masterpiece about life. Maybe some people think so because of it's ending, I don't know. Kong Que or peacock is a must see Chinese drama for those, who still love cinema. And for those who still wants to be surprised by it. The only weak side of Kong Que is a story about the youngest son in a family, which isn't so impressive as the stories of his siblings. Anyway, acting, directing & cinematography is great. I hope you'll have great time watching it, as I did. But be prepared this movie is longer than 2 hours.

A film that bears no intention to entertain but a second viewing or more.I was 17 and I rent it home and I began to experience it alone.Dreams achingly dreamed and dreams never fulfilled.I was 17 and only cherished a rather vague outline of China in the late 1970s;China,my motherland.An age during which mass insanity was gradually quenched with mores still overwhelmingly domineering throughout the country.Blue trousers and white blouses and neatly tied-up long hair.You might encounter various feminine visages,but surely you wouldn't ever meet more than one style of dressing.It just went that way,like what the world sees now in North Korea.But hey,let's not be silly as to apply terms like human rights,etc. to the movie.It repels me to have to put up with those who're for ever seeking to impose upon any piece of art unnecessary or even absurd messages which it itself isn't even aware of.It's pregnant only with messages bound for it to be pregnant with,and let's not go too far and interpret no more.

I am 21 year old now, although I don't belong to the time in which the story of Peacock happened, I am a Chinese anyway and I know it would take place in those years and I feel glad and of course proud that someone has put it on screen at last.

We are living in this world, sometimes without a clear purpose: study,work,date and love, not realizing that what we are doing now is called living because life has a magic to obsess its victims with trifles so that they seldom notice that hours,days or months has passed by. Only when we occidentally see a picture taken years ago or view a video starred by our young images,do we find out the trick of life and begin to recall the passing time. Reminiscing is pleasant both for the young and the elder. Memories,no matter sweet or bitter,are like old songs, which will never fail to touch you the moment you catch the familiar tunes.

For me,Peacock is a reminder to my own childhood. Although I live in a different time, the movie does have some traces of the unchanged childhood of every Chinese. We have our dreams but we dare not talk about it with our parents, because in 9 out of 10 cases, our parents will not be impressed by our 'naive' dream and in their eyes, studying is the only way for us. In our adolescence, we boys were very curious about girls but we never had the education about sex and the only thing we were thought was that 'don't do stupid things with girls' and that was the comment about sex or about love.

To some extent, Peacock remains a story which also has some truth. I don't believe in the parachute, but now I think it is only a symbol of dream.It seems a little unreal when a realism contains something romantic.However, it is a 100 percent masterpiece and I'd like to watch it again in spite of the length.

We finally watched this a few nights ago. I brought the DVD back from China a few months ago. This is an extremely good movie -- in my opinion one of the best movies from China that I have seen in a while -- and I am surprised and disappointed that it hasn't been released in the states yet. This is not a bloated and overwrought effort at an epic of the sort that has become so common in China.

This is a touching study of the siblings in a single family, and their struggle to get by. This may seem like an odd analogy, but watching it made me think of Yasujiro Ozu's movies. Obviously the film is about China and not Japan, but there are some parallels in terms of the use of a single family as a lens for evoking a changing society. Someone with an interest in China could learn a lot about society there during the seventies and eighties.

As one would expect given Gu Changwei's background as a cinematographer, the film is absolutely beautiful to look at.

I hope this is released in the States - if it hasn't been already - so others have an opportunity to enjoy it.

The story is set in the 1970s in a small town in China. A middle aged couple has three children. The eldest son is obese and mentally challenged, therefore he is teased and outcasted by others. The second child is an outgoing and energetic daughter, who is not afraid of doing anything to pursue her dreams or to survive. The youngest child is a shy and quiet boy who is ashamed by his older brother and tries to break away from the misery in his family. Breaking into three sections focusing on each of these siblings, the film allows us to look into the lives of ordinary Chinese people the 70s.

With poetic cinematography, this film reveals fascinating stories and characters to the audience. After watching this film, I doubt that anybody would forget the image of an old lady slowly passing the dinning table in the hall way where the family has supper together everyday. We witness how the three siblings dreamed, how they fought to make their dreams come true, and how they succeeded or failed, and how powerless and hopeless they were to accept their fate.

This is a must see, not to be missed.