Sunday, July 22, 2007
Tuya's Marriage (图雅的婚事)
Won the top prize Golden Bear at the 2007 Berlin Film Festival, "Tuya's Marriage" (图雅的婚事, China 2006, 96 min.) tells an engaging story about, well, Tuya's marriage. In a remote location in Inner Mongolia, Tuya is the sole working adult in her family with two young children and a disabled husband. In order to deal with the hardship, Tuya and his husband Bater decide to get divorced, so Tuya can remarry and bring in a man to support the family. But Tuya has one condition to anyone who asks to marry her: Bater must stay with the family. This film has a documentary feel. Most the actors are non-professional ones, and their characters even use actors' own names. Yu Nan (余男) gives an impressive performance as Tuya who faces the harsh reality. Tuya has to make a choice between love and family's survival. For Tuya, being able to support the family and her disabled husband is how she shows her love. Even that means she has to divorce her husband and marry to another man. The emotional burden is unimaginable. Every character in the film seems to be genuine nice people, for the most part. Yet, life is not easy and they have to make heartbroken decisions. The film's success should also give credit to its brilliant script. It's written by Lu Wei (芦苇) who also wrote "Farewell My Concubine" (霸王别姬) and "To Live" (活着). I am looking forward to see his next project "白鹿原." If I were to make a choice similar to Tuya's, what would I do? That will be an entirely different film. |
