Getting Home (2007)

This is a must-see and one of the best documentaries - and films - of this year.

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

If you like to be scared, if you like to laugh, and if you like to learn a thing or two at the movies, this absolutely cannot be missed.

One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

Here comes a dark comedy movie from People's Republic of China with a not truly original story but some great images and a solid acting.After the death of a coworker, his colleague and friend wants to fulfil his mate's last wish and bring his cadaver in his small home town that happens to be almost two thousand miles away. On his way through the big and diversified country, the man on his strange mission meets a lot of strange people such as philosophical thieves, heartbroken truck drivers, lonely but smart old men, bikers that are looking for freedom and fulfilment, cutthroat restaurant owners, desperate but cordial beggars and dutiful police officers before the movie ends with a little twist.The movie has a lot of colourful characters and kicks off with the most funny and intriguing scenes in the bus and with a truck driver. After a strong start, the movie gets a little bit redundant now and then and has a couple of lengths. Even the good acting in this road movie can't help that the movie sometimes gets lost. In contrast to these lengths, the beginning and the ending of the movie are definitely too abrupt and lack of depth.The movie doesn't centre around its weak plot but around true Chinese valours and the diversified cultures, landscapes and people. I though feel that this movie is once again slightly propagandistic and tries to dress an almost perfect image of the Chinese people even if there are also one or two bad boys to find. Every recent Chinese movie contains some proverbs and traditional songs. When you first see and hear this, it's exotic, intriguing and original but it gets a boring and pretentious trend. It's the same as if every second American film would include Christmas carols and mention the American Dream. It would get annoying after a while. This movie also contains too many proverbs and carols.In the end, this movie is especially an interesting one for anybody that doesn't know that much about Chinese culture as one can discover a lot of cultural things about this amazing country in this movie. Anybody that is used to Chinese cinema won't discover anything new and apart of a very solid start, a very good acting and a well done romance towards the end, this flick remains quite average. It's worth to be watched once but nothing more in my humble opinion.

the film is philosophical, yet simple.......... it says that human life itself is a journey.we all have some promises to keep and these promises keep our life meaningful(!).here the hero has to get his friend's body to his home.on the way to home of the dead he meets people with different nature.some of the experiences were sour.but it does not make any change on him,his innate qualities are left intact.it makes us remember of the the fact that journey is the nature and essence of human life.this journey passes through the variety of the land scape and similarity of the human nature across the geographical and political frontiers.we can identify it with our own experience of moving with a body that is not at all of ours!

I watched this film with my homiez in theatre ,Ji Nan,i found the audience can not help themselves 2 laugh out loudly several times,the main reason IMO is because of Zhao benshan,one of the best comedian in China.Every traditional Chinese new year show,if the show without the performance of Zhao Benshan,maybe kind of boring,so you will know what a great actor he is.This flick directed by Zhang yang who also directed The Shower(XiZao),tells a farmer(in China also called Ming Gong) who tries to bring home the body of his friend, who died far from their town,on the way to his dead friends home happened lots of unexpected things,some of them are funny,some of them are so moving,it proved the priceless of the promise.Zhao benshan played this role so naturally with the accent of northeast,it was hard for a man whose age nearly 50 to nonstop carrying body such a long distance,it make me thinking of a song called "the people from northeast were all alive Lei Feng",lolThis film set in Southwest of China,the scene was beautiful,cinematography and the colors were remarkable...I give this film 10/10,no doubt,if you are a big fan of Zhao benshan,go to watch it,don't miss,it worth your money!

It's all in the family. Director ZHANG Yang's father was a respected director in Beijing. Academically trained, Zhang won the special Critics' Award in Toronto (in the TIFF, the world's largest non-award international film festival) with "Xizao" (The Shower). Unlike another Zhang, this young director stays true to his soul continuing to make simple, heart-warming movies about the common people of China rather than trying to impersonate Hollywood big blockbuster directors. In a recent interview on "Lou ye gui gen", he intimated about the difficulty of marketing a small art-house movie in a country with no art-house cinemas. "Although my movies have more comedy elements and are more accessible, they are still art house movies. I care more about showing my characters' lives and personalities than the box office." "Getting home" (note the subtle use of "getting", not "coming" or "going") is first and foremost a road movie, an international favourite genre that has seen many top notch films: "The Straight Story", "Nashan naren nagou", "Central Station", "Kikujiro no natsu". Although "Getting home" may not be among the most brilliant ones, it does not suffer much by comparison. And I wouldn't call it a "black" comedy ("The cook, the thief, his wife and her love" IS a black comedy) – it's more like "grey".The first ten minutes sets the tone for the movie and is worth recounting in some detail, with a SPOILER warning (although I'm not even sure that something in the first 10 minutes in a 2-hour movies can technically be considered a spoiler). It starts with a close up of Zhao gulping down a glass of booze before heading to the bus with his buddy who is dead drunk, on a long trip home after a few years as migrated labourors. Next, we see a "relieving stop" when, according to the well established custom, men go to the bushes on the left and women on the right to relieve themselves. His buddy stays on the bus and is later accused by the returning women for being a peeping Tom, a storm in a tea cup that Zhao quells by apologizing profusely on behalf of his buddy. Then come the highway robbers, declaring in a most professional manner their intention, before coming down the aisle, equipped with metal detectors, to collect contributions. When it comes to Zhao's turn, he insists firmly that they can take his money but not his buddy's. When asked to explain why, he says that the robbers should give his buddy due respect. "He's dead", says he.The rest of the movie, taking it from there, is about this man honouring his promise to his buddy (probably spoken after a few drinks too many) "If you die here, I wouldn't let them cremate you, but will personally carry your body to your home town to be buried, in accordance with traditional custom".Throughout this journey, the audience will encounter a rich pageant of various people (not to mention numerous ingenious ways of carrying a dead body) most of whom are kind-hearted. There are moments of hilarious fun as well as heart-breaking poignancy, with as many a variety of beautiful music to match, from playful to languid. Just as varies and beautiful is the cinematography of the landscape en route.ZHAO Benshan is a natural, making Zhao one of the best-loved characters in any movie that you have ever seen. For those who must have big names, there is a segment with HU Jun.