After watching “To Live”, I can’t stop thinking about this question…

Okay, I just finished watching Zhang Yimou’s “To Live” for the first time, and I feel like I need to talk to someone about it. I went in knowing it was a classic, but I wasn’t prepared for how much it would stick with me days later. It’s one of those movies that just sits heavy on your chest, you know The thing I can’t stop thinking about is Fugui’s resilience. This guy goes through literally everything – losing his family fortune, being forced into the army, the constant political shifts in China, and the heartbreaking deaths of his loved ones. And yet, he just… keeps going. It’s not even a heroic, triumphant kind of going on. It’s just this quiet, stubborn persistence. It makes me wonder, what is it that actually keeps a person going after so much loss Is it just… habit The basic instinct to survive Or is there something more I remember there’s this one scene where his son, Youqing, dies in such a sudden, absurd accident. The sheer helplessness of that moment shattered me. How do you find a reason to get up the net morning after that And this brings me to my main question for you all: Do you think “To Live” is ultimately a hopeful story, or is it a deeply tragic one I’m honestly torn. On one hand, you see Fugui and his wife Jiazhen lose their children, their friends, their stability. The film doesn’t shy away from the brutal randomness of fate and the pain of the era. It feels like a relentless series of tragedies. At times, I found myself asking, “How much more can one family possibly take” But on the other hand, there’s this undeniable thread of hope. It’s in the small moments. It’s in the way Fugui and Jiazhen’s love for each other endures, even when they’re broken. It’s in the final scenes with his grandson and the little chicks, this simple, cyclical promise of new life. The title itself, “To Live”, isn’t “To Be Happy” or “To Thrive”. It’s just… to live. And maybe there’s a profound hope in that simple act itself. I’ll be honest, it made me reflect on my own life. Last year, I lost my job and went through a pretty rough patch. It felt like the end of the world at the time. But watching Fugui’s journey, with all its colossal hardships, really put my own problems into perspective. It didn’t make my struggles feel small, but it did make me realize the incredible human capacity to endure and find tiny sparks of joy, like Fugui with his shadow puppets. So, what do you guys think Did you walk away from the film feeling crushed by the sadness, or uplifted by the resilience Maybe a weird mi of both And what scene hit you the hardest For me, it was definitely the moment with Youqing. I don’t think I’ll ever forget that. I’m really curious to hear your interpretations. This feels like one of those films that everyone takes away something different from.