The 1994 Zhang Yimou movie To Live (活着) will play at the Maridon Museum on October 20, the second installment of this fall's Chinese Film Series. A contemporary Roger Ebert review summarizes the film, which stars Ge You and Gong Li and which was banned in Mainland China:
"To Live" is a simple title, but it conceals a universe. The film follows the life of one family in China, from the heady days of gambling dens in the 1940s to the austere hardship of the Cultural Revolution in the 1960s. And through all of their fierce struggles with fate, all of the political twists and turns they endure, their hope is basically one summed up by the heroine, a wife who loses wealth and position and children, and who says, "All I ask is a quiet life together." The movie has been directed by Zhang Yimou, the leading Chinese filmmaker right now (although this film offended Beijing and earned him a two-year ban from filmmaking). It stars his wife, Gong Li, the leading Chinese actress (likewise banned). Together their credits include "Ju Dou," "Raise the Red Lantern" and "The Story of Qui Ju." Like them it follows the fate of a strong woman, but also this time a strong man; somehow they stick together through incredible hardships.The October 20th showing starts at 6:00 pm and is presented by Dr. William Covey of Slippery Rock University.
The Maridon, an Asian art museum, is located at 322 North McKean St. in downtown Butler (map), roughly 40 miles north of Pittsburgh.
