It is true that the theme of "Return" returns to the concern for human nature and the reflection on history. In the first half of the film, the Cultural Revolution is used to start the conversation, and then the family's "faith, hope and love" are used to divert attention. "Return" takes the story of the original "Crime Lu Yanshi" to the end, skipping Yan Geling's cruel description of Lu Yanshi's destruction of his personal spirit and the collapse of the entire family after being labeled a rightist, leaving only the husband and wife relationship. Keep the truth and infatuation. At the beginning of the film, the youngest daughter of the Lu family who grew up during the Cultural Revolution's unconditional "loyalty" to the organization prompted her to choose without hesitation to draw a line from her long-lost father. In order to play the heroine in the revolutionary model drama "The Red Detachment of Women", she betrayed her father. The oppression of people in that era was partly revealed in this teenage child. But with the jump in "a few years later", this oppressive wind has passed without a trace, and in the end, only the mother's unforgiveness and the father's unforgiveness are left behind.
To quote Zhang Yimou’s old partner screenwriter Lu Wei, “Compared with Zhang Yimou’s early “Qiu Ju’s Lawsuit”, “Judou”, and “Alive”, there is still a distance.” This distance is mainly reflected in the dramatic conflict. Absence, the narration is too bland, and it cannot achieve the effect of not being able to achieve the effect of not being able to express what is meant by the words, making "Return" a sense of loss and only lingering when it is halfway through.
Compared with "Alive", this sense of loss is particularly profound. It is also a work of art with the background of the Cultural Revolution. In "Alive", every ups and downs of Fugui has a great relationship with the background of the times at that time. With every change of times, Fugui lost his wife and children one after another, and his family was destroyed. In a film full of more blatant irony and questioning than novels, Fugui is not without resistance, but in the torrent of this era, no one can escape. The Lu Yanshi family in "Return" was also caught up in the undercurrent of the era that was surging after fate, and it was out of control. However, in "Return", the powerlessness of the little people in the face of the crushing of the times is insignificant in the love between Feng Wanyu and Lu Yanshi. When Lu Yanshi wanted to seek revenge against Master Fang, the representative of the system who had bullied his family, but found out that Lao Fang's wife had accused Lao Fang of being taken away, Lu Yanshi turned around speechlessly, not sure what it was When satirizing, there are evil retributions in the past, but still admonishing "Forget it, it's not easy for everyone."
Some people say that this is already the "boldest" presentation of the Cultural Revolution theme in a movie that can get a public release license. If it is more profound, it can only meet the fate of being banned like "Alive". Zhang Yimou used films at different times to write about the changes in people's destiny, and it fell on him. Times have changed, and Laomouzi seems to have "compromised". It's no wonder that Mo Yan would say that, from being outspoken to being restrained, some of the spirit and energy have been lost, and "some are overwhelmed."
Although Lu Yanshi's departure from home and Feng Wanyu's amnesia were born from that era, the tragedy of a family did not bring any deep reflection and questioning, leaving only a pure love story that can be placed anywhere. Even though this eloquent story of pure love has touched the tears of some people, it has always lacked a deeper shock and resonance beyond the surface. Those audiences who have experienced the baptism of domestically produced bad Chinese films and had unlimited expectations for him may want to sigh sincerely when they are lost: film and television will be useless, and Hu will not return?
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