Educational Media Reviews Online

This is director Ying Liang’s first feature film. Taking Father Home created with only a few thousand dollars budget, using a borrowed camera, and with friends for actors, offers a seldom seen look into the lives of common everyday people seeking to live their lives in spite of the dense and intricate layers of modern society that often gives construction projects precedence over the past, tradition, and human cost. The setting for this film is China in the midst of growing capitalism and in a rush to displace the past with the future. Embedded in this scene is a warning about uncertainty about greater calamities for a modern society. The central figure is adolescent Xu Yun, a farm boy from Sichuan province who leaves home with the goal of saving the local village from demolition to make way for a government construction and social betterment program designed to bring fresh water to the region. His only hope is to locate and bring home his father who left the family in search of success some 6 years earlier and is now believed to be a successful businessman in the city. In his naivety, we see the hope that comes with youth and adolescence. The desire to make a difference in his world unfolds as he leaves home on his journey that he will finance with a pair of fine ducks. This scene contrasts sharply with what quickly transpires as he learns the hard lessons associated with “important news casts,” “violent acts,” “crime” and “fears” of life. We travel with him as he is criticized, berated, and cared for by some unlikely folk.

Shot in narrative style Liang depicts symbolically the rage that undercuts a society that has come to excise its humanity toward its own citizens in the name of greater society. Herein deep meanings erupt before our mind’s eye as we see favor skewed toward official state and social order while subjugated but numerically large segments of society are pushed aside to make way for a blinded progress in social order. From this, we find a voice for those that carry within them a rage over their anonymity in this world. Meanwhile we stay glued to our seats. Even though I have a pause button, I could not tear myself away from the screen until I learned the outcome of Xu Yun’s journey to take father home. See the short trailer on the Typecast Releasing web site.

Awards

• Golden Digital Award, Hong Kong International Film Festival
• Special Jury Prize, Tokyo FilMex Film Festival
• FIPRESCI/NETPAC, Singapore International Film Festival
• SKYY Prize, San Francisco International Film Festival