My Rating: YYYYYDirector: Xiaogang Feng
Cast: Jingchu Zhang, Fan Xu, Chen Li, Daoming Chen, Jin Chen, Ziwen Wang, Yi Lu, Guoqiang Zhang
This moving story is based on the catastrophic event of Tangshan earthquake, that happened at Tangshan, Hebei Province, China, in the early morning of July 28, 1976 with a magnitude of 7.8 Richter scale, which claimed the lives of 240,000 people, and caused another 160,000 people being severely injured. Other statistics even initially reported that the death toll was around 650,000 to 780,000 people, but the Chinese government has never released an accurate death toll for the disaster.
This big-budgeted Chinese movie (estimated US$ 25 Million of production budget), directed by one of the high profile Chinese directors nowadays, Feng Xiaogang (A World Without Thieves, The Banquet, Assembly, If You Are the One), has set the all-time China domestic box office record for a Chinese film with 532 Million Yuan (around US$ 80 Million) in ticket sales. This data was based on the data of August 8, 2010, only two-and-a-half weeks after the movie was being released in July 22, 2010. Aftershock was also the first Chinese movie released in IMAX format, which marked a technical breakthrough for the Chinese film industry, with the technical assistances from the visual effects experts from South Korea, France and New Zealand. The later is the New Zealand's Weta Workshop, the Oscar-winning design company that was responsible for the design of Lord of the Rings trilogy.
The fact is, I know nothing of all the information above when I watched this movie in the theater. I have almost zero knowledge of what I was about to see. And, what I saw on screen astonished and amazed me! Not only visually, but also emotionally. I was touched so deep in my heart by this horrifying yet beautiful drama, that words will difficult to describe my feelings.
The story is following one lower working-class family with a father, a mother, and their seven-year-old twins (a boy and a girl), just before the event of the big earthquake at Tangshan. All the family members have to experience the chaos and horror of the disaster that night, which only fate that could possibly save them from that deadly moment. In the aftermath of the earthquake, the mother finds out that her two children were trapped together under one big slab of concrete, below their ruined apartment building. And in the aftershocks following the major earthquake, the mother has to decide and pick to save only one of her children, as lifting the heavy slab manually to save one child, who was trapped at one end below the slab, will eventually kill the other child at the other end of the slab. Failed to make the decision quickly, will only cause both the children to die buried in the ruins that keep collapsing due to the aftershocks. In that terrifying moment, the mother is forced to make a choice that she doesn't want to. But she has to choose, if not, she will lose them both. And heartbreakingly, the mother makes her choice, but her decision is overheard by the child that she decides not to save. And that child can only beg for the life that is about to be taken away, with only unheard whisperer coming out from the mouth, below the ruins.
I cannot tell you further, because one more step I go, I might spoil the whole story. This is not merely a disaster movie, because the disaster was actually only the backdrop of the story. It's about the human drama following the disaster, with the story time spanning over 32 years, until the event of another big earthquake in China that happened recently at Sichuan province in 2008. It's about the consequences of a decision being made and the impacts of that decision to every character of the story for the rest of their lives. It's about surviving the aftermath, sacrifice, faithfulness, regret, and forgiveness.
The disaster scene itself was top notch. In fact, I was surprised by what I saw. I was really surprised! The CGI and special effects were very well made with in depth details. It was close to that of a Hollywood movie. It was even comparable to many Hollywood disaster movies. And I was nearly disbelief that I was watching a Chinese movie with an extraordinary good special effects. The disaster scene was so scary and dramatic, which made Roland Emmerich's 2012 and its story looked like an appetizer and a play in the park (if talking about the emotions involved).
The main attraction of this movie was the drama that was beautifully written. It was so powerful, touching and emotionally draining. The story was captivating and involving us to care for the fate of the characters besieged by the disaster and feeling pity for them in the aftermath. You will want to know what will happen next to each of the character. Hands down to the screenwriter and the director, who did excellent jobs. The backdrop of the Chinese people's culture and beliefs, including believing in ghosts of the deceased that will visit their family every year, and the political and social situation in China at that time, including the death of China's great leader, Mao Zedong, gave interesting nuances to the story.
Almost all the actors did an outstanding job, from the adults until the child actors, with their superb and very believable performances. The child stars were impressive and so natural in their actings, especially the one who played the little girl. The most honorable mentions are for Xu Fan as the mother, a very good actress and all-out convincing in expressing all of her emotions, and Chen Daoming as the foster dad, with his agile and fun to watch acting. I believe both of them will win awards for their roles in this movie as the best actress and best supporting actor. Another honorable mention is for Zhang Jingchu, who also gave a good performance as another central character of this movie. There were many tearjerker moments that will tear your heart into pieces. If you are a woman, do bring your tissues, as I will guarantee that you will cry, more than once. And if you are a man, it still may touch you to drop tears from your eyes.
This is an excellent movie in almost every aspect. A very solid drama. My only small complains were for the rather rough editings in some parts of the movie, but it was nothing as compare to the film in overall. And the first reunion near the end of the movie, in my opinion, actually still can be made more dramatic. But the final reunion was the real touch down, with the actings, expressions, and dialogs from the main characters that will stir-up your emotions.
I believe this movie will win many awards in China, as it is really worth it. And this movie also has a very good chance if China encloses it to participate in the run for the Oscar's Best Foreign Languange Film. This is a wonderful movie, one of the best movies that I've watched this year. And I am happy to know that it came from China. (MJ)
