Customer Reviews

Life on a String [VHS]

5 star:		(5)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Chen Kaige's Life on a String is an interesting drama about a blind musician and his young student in past times of China. Master and student travels through the countryside depending only each other in harsh conditions. Master however is hailed as a saint in villages and highly respected. He dreams of being able to see after breaking the 1000th string on his instrument which is told him by his master when he was very very young.
His student however is different than him, more focused on life itself, and a villager girl who has an eye on him makes issues even more complex and thus causing trouble between 2 man.
Life on string is an early work of Chen Kaige and many people will find it long, heavy and basicly very boring. Film demands your attention fully focused on it and requires your patience.
You need to sit back and watch it peacefully without disruption. It is nearly 2 hours long and you wont see much action here apart from some sad twists of life. But such experience is difficult to comeby these days. Kaige's way of telling the story is nothing less than amazing with great takes of Chinese landscape; the wastelands, furious rivers, small towns and temples. Camera work and cinephotography is amazing and acting is good.Zhong yuan Liu's portrayal of the old blind master who can even ends fighting between clans with his instrument. Of course there is traditional Chinese music and songs which creates a great atmosphere by simply elevating the masters "saint" status while he wa singing.
Story questions life itself, asking what is actually seeing and do we see everything by our eyes only? Although master and the student are both blind they actually are aware of every situation around them and use the eyes of their hearts and souls to see. "2 princes fell to earth from heaven" as master says to his student. God of heaven sent his soldiers to shut their eyes so they could not see the evil and dirt of the earth. Both musicians are pure in one sense having none of earthly desires but one : to be able to see which they already know but unaware.
We see it through may examples like in the scenes where master watches a waterfall blindly while a small rainbow graces this beautiful view. Film also has many philosophic underlines and religious background like God of death appearing in man's form
keeping an eye on the old master, refusing to take any money from him, gracing his food with a burning sauce, preparing freshest noodles for the brave traveller only.When master asks about him an answer comes without hesitation: He is the boss, one and only.
Overall it is a difficult long film by Kaige and should not be mixed by his later work. But although it is demanding, it is also very very promising in terms of beauty of cinema as an art. You need to watch life on a string not only with your eyes but with your heart and soul as well. A beautiful example of cinema as a visual art that always touch the senses like nothing else.

Let's face facts folks, Chinese movies are not known for being upbeat, but this is really quite the saddest Chinese movie I have ever seen. If the dialogue is bland to some, certainly the cinematography is moving enough to warrant buying the film. To me, the story was more about wishes and realties, and the wisdom to know the difference between the two. The viewer keeps rooting for the two protagonists, the blind singer and his protege, but the stark reality of life's harshness keep interrupting what could be a happy outcome. Nevertheless, the film will keep you guessing, and anyone who says it is boring should stick to movies like "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon," because this one is definitely more for the hard core Chinese film fan who is willing to sit through a quiet, moving story to achieve a thoughful state of mind at its end.

This story isn't accessible in a linear way. It isn't the kind of film that you can recommend to all of your friends (unless all of your friends are of one mind) and have them all thank you. The landscape is visually stunning, the folksongs are rich and haunting, and the message is timeless. Now for the but... About forty minutes into it, my husband turned to me and said, "Have you understood anything that has happened so far?" to which I replied, "Not really..." He got up and found something else to do, I stuck it out. The second to the last scene, when the blind old master sings his last song, is worth sitting through everything that comes before--if you are also the kind of person who enjoys gifts like the set of Chinese boxes where every box contains yet another, or delving into e.e. cummings' Anyone Lived In A Pretty How Town... I do, my husband doesn't. You decide for yourself.

Kaige's work with symbolism and emotion is superb.I initially saw this movie on VHS after reading Hoberman's review in the Village Voice. The pacing is fairly fast, given the length of the story, the activity moves right along. Those folks not use to movies outside the mainstream might feel ackward but give it a chance. At the same time Kino Video has done an atrocious job with the video transfer. The initial 10 minutes the frame shakes and jerks and I guarantee that's not from the original. The resolution is overly grainy, someone else needs to redo the remaster, because this awesome screen parable deserves it.

this dvd looks like a bad copy from an old vhs tape.
i remember seeing this movie years ago being amazed by its
spectacular images. this dvd print is loaded with
faded and dusty pictures, accompanied by muddy audio tracks.
it is disappointing.

A young blind musician is promised by his master that he will
be able to see once he has broken one thousand strings while playing his chinese banjo. Now an old man, he wanders through Chinese village with a young apprentice (who is also blind), playing for villagers who treat him as a saint.

When he breaks the 1000th string, there is no miracle for his eyes; however, he does "see" that each one is led through life by an illusion that suffering will miraculously disappear one day. His young apprentice also has been disillusioned by the death of his lover. Faced with the emptiness of life, the two have different reactions. The old man first becomes angry but then goes back to singing the same old songs about how one day we will not sing from sadness but from joy. It would seem that he has gathered that in the same way as he needed the myth of the 1000 broken strings to get through life with hope, so too do most people need
a myth to carry them through life.

The young apprentice, on the other hand, chooses death and jumps from the same cliff that brought death to his beloved.

This movie is about as happy as reading Schopenhauer. However, there is something liberating about confronting our mortality. When we do so, we can finally begin living instead of devoting so much energy to "covering up" death. This idea was not really explored in the movie though.

As in all Chinese cinema there is wonderful camerawork and scenery; the songs are beautiful and haunting. I would have given 5 stars, except the director attempted to add some minimalist touches to this movie which seemed forced and, in any case, did not completely work.

This is, in my estimation, Chen Caige's best and has only been out on video recently. It is a powerful and moving epic about a blind man searching for the ability to "see." The film is understood in reverse the first time you see it and a wonderful poem each time thereafter.

Chen Kaige is special. Hollywood has nobody like him. While most movies these days seem obsessed with special effects, Chen Kaige shows how a master movie maker can create a masterpiece with seemingly so little. Acting is superb, photography quite breathtaking and the music will haunt you for weeks after the movie has finished. If you like other Kaige movies like Temptress Moon and Farewell My Concubine, chances are you will love this.

I read some of the one star reviews complaining that the movie was as empty as the northeast of China. To that I can only say: if you are empty, I guess you will find emptyness. So, this movie is not for the fans of "actionpacked" Hollywood fare - those are the movies I would call empty... you feel like you're just watching the same movie over and over again, because Hollywood makes movies by recepy. If you're looking for something new and different with a deeper meaning, you may like this movie a lot. I had no problem understanding what was going on, but then I wasn't raised on movies that spoon feed every bit of a poor plot to you. This movie's beauty and haunting message is something I would not want to miss from my collection of experiences.

Yes, this movie is empty at times.. it is better to not talk and say very much than to talk very much and say nothing at all.
In the emptiness, there is time for reflection and one's reflection may be directly related to the state of one's pool. Keep in mind that we all look through different lenses.
The movie is interesting and positive.