Getting Home, 落叶归根. Zhao Benshan, dir. Zhang Yang

[roddy]

Just meant to check to see if the subtitles were working and two hours later I've watched the whole thing

Combination of black comedy and road movie, starring Zhao Benshan as a migrant worker trying to get his buddy's corpse back home through a China of truck stops, building sites, underground blood harvesting operations and pretty scenery. It's a low key movie which occasionally veers towards the slapstick or the maudlin, but not too much of either - and what do you expect when the supporting actor is playing a corpse? I really enjoyed it - Zhao is in his element, and his brief encounters with the good, bad and ugly of rural and small town China are nicely done with a few decent laughs. You might cry at points, if you are a little soppy. Directed by Zhang Yang (Shower), so if you like his work probably worth a look. Trying to think of films to compare it to, it's perhaps close in tone to Zhang Yimou's Happy Times, which also starred Zhao Benshan.

VeryCD have a subtitled copy for download.

[juhuacha]

Firefox doesn't know how to open this address, because the protocol (ed2k) isn't associated with any program.

I'm getting this error message when I try to download... do you know what program I would need to run this?

[venture160]

is this just a normal BT feed?

[gougou]

You will need e-mule (or anything compatible).

And of course, still nobody is condoning piracy here!

[roddy]

Yes, you will need some version of Emule installed.

[imron]

I remember a few years back in the paper, they mentioned a similar story, about a migrant worker trying to move the corpse of his dead-coworker back to their hometown so he could be buried. I wonder if this is based on that story.

[roddy]

So has anyone actually seen this yet? Or are you all still trying to figure out how to download it?

[venture160]

still trying to figure out how to download, having a mac make's things difficult

[imron]

I'd like to see it, but just haven't found the time. Getting it shouldn't be problem, all the DVD vendors near me seem to have copies of it.

[venture160]

I just watched this at Toudou, (had to watch it cut in parts, quality was OK). I thought it wasn't bad, it was a neat pictoral of rural China and the lower reaches of Chinese society, mostly poor villagers just trying to make some money. The scenery was really nice, mostly shot in SE China. It was also interesting to see such rural parts of china contrasted with construction sites, migrant workers and highway robbers.

[laolee]

I watched the HK DVD recently and quite enjoyed it. Question to those that have seen it: In a pre-release article, there was mention of a scene/segment involving a prostitute that helped make up Liu. The end credits also list a character 'made up lady' which I think might refer to the prostitute. But I don't remember seeing that scene. Was it cut out, does anyone recall seeing that scene? It's not even on any Deleted Scenes on the DVD. Here is the description, "When he needs to hide Old Liu' death spots, he finds a sympathetic prostitute who puts make up on Old Liu."

And yes, I've read the story is based on a real event, too.

[roddy]

Isn't she a 'hairdresser'? There's a part where he ends up in some no-name town, ends up talking to a woman in a hairdressers and then gets a lift from the cop who likes her?

[laolee]

That's what I thought at first, but on the credits she's listed separately as Hair Salon Girl.

Though maybe that is the scene being described. Yes, the makes sense.

Then maybe the credit for 'Made-Up Lady' refers to the pretty lady in red on the bus in the opening?

[gougou]

Just watched this yesterday as part of my effort to watch more Chinese new years during the CNY (this was the first; let's see whether I manage a second...)

Quite enjoyed this one (just as I enjoy most everything Zhao Benshan does just for his character being so adorable). The people he meets on his way are a nice mixture of good and bad, mistreated and mistreating. I was surprised to what extent illegal blood harvesters were able to get airtime in a mainstream movie - not something I expected based on how many difficulties AIDS activists face when trying to talk about just that.

I agree with the comparison to Happy Times. Not only because of Zhao Benshan, whose pretty much staying in character from one movie to the other, but also the last scene (Zhao Benshan reciting what he hear the kid read) reminded me a lot of the last scene of Happy Times (where Zhao Benshan's friend reads out a note)