Sister

A tear quencher, Sister is a movie that took a while to get into its groove, but boy did it go. Yes, you have to be Chinese to fully comprehend the social setting of the film, and frankly I am surprised to see the film pass the bureau in the first place, but isn't this the beauty of movies? To create story out of social surroundings and culture. An Ran's story is literally representative of millions of family in China, but the director is able to create a cast of characters to accentuate the story is masterful. I see the criticism of the film being melodramatic, but I don't think so. Sister for me actually goes against expectation of a Chinese drama, it never focuses on the accident, there is no unneeded hatred between conflicted parties and it doesn't dwell on the breakup, instead it focuses on natural character development and issues that are truly life changing for the siblings. None of the characters are black and white, isn't that more representative of our world? It truly is something for a rookie director to be able to illustrate such a simple yet complex story.

Sister starts with a tragedy when a young child, the brother, lost his parents to an accident. The brother had an older sister who had become a nurse and had her own life. The sister was not close to him or their parents, who had become a nurse and was planning on going to graduate school in a bigger city. Being the only blood relative, the sister had no choice but to keep the brother with her, while trying to find a family for adoption. However during the time they lived together, they formed a strong bound and the sister needed to make a decision when finally a lovely couple seemed to be a good fit for adoption.

A culture background will be required to understand a lot of dramatic moments. Although may no longer to the case nowadays, during the years the sister was brought up and some parts of the country when the film was set, the Chinese culture still favored boys way over girls. She was considered the less important, if not better off without. "Abuse" was not the right word, but she could certain feel all her parents wanted was a boy, - her brother.

Yet blood is always thicker, and the brother was a cute, smart and loving. He adored her and she was "all he had". We can see how the sister's attitude towards the brother change, and also how her view towards her own life.

The movie has a poetic feel. It was sad and grey for the first two thirds, but gradually became heart warming and colorful. There will be sobbing moments for sure.

Overall a touching film, beautifully made.

I waited a month to see the movie because I didn't trust the hype created by the Chinese moviegoers... everyone wanted to see it immediately after the release on 2nd April! Of course, my wife wasn't exception... so I had to endure tirades of how good this film is, how sad and touching it was...

Today, I finally endured 2 hours and seven minutes and I am happy to write my opinion! Cinematography, acting of the youngest actor, authenticity of using the Sichuan dialect and directing were superbly executed by the very experience team! Everything rest was so melodramatic that it felt like scenes were planned so carefully to get the desired effect that sometimes seemed like they were forced!

Written and filmed for the Chinese audience which is almost always sympathetic to the suffering that was endured during the one child policy by many families, this film's full story will be lost with the audience from other countries.

To me this film was simply boring, wrongly paced, with illogical actions of the members of the family - it could be the cultural difference gap... but I am not sure about it, after living 10 years in China.

So, if you are Chinese, you probably watched it already... if you are coming from any other country - try to skip it. It will confuse you, annoy you, bore you and you will be asking yourself why are you always repeating the same mistakes trusting your cable service provider's ratings!

First of all, you need to have sympathy to watch this movie. 2nd of all, focus on the acting instead of the story. 3rd of all, be tolerant for such a dramatic scene. I have all above but still think this movie just too dramatic and try to be touching but still unable to be touched.

Kudos to the director hand over such exquisite hat trick score. Camera language, bgm, edit, art and every small detail such as actor breathing, movement, pause moment was beautifully execute.chemistry between the sister and brother was touching will move u to tears some people find hard to accept this movie cause of the backlash to their beliefs.i find the dialect they speak was beautiful and bring realistic to the movies.