Watching “To Live” Made Me Rethink Everything About Family and Resilience

I remember the first time I watched “To Live,” or 《活着》. It was a rainy afternoon in my college dorm, and a friend had practically forced me to watch it, saying it was a “must-see.” I went in epecting a heavy historical drama, but I came out feeling like I’d lived an entire lifetime in those two hours. I just sat there for a while after the credits rolled, staring at the blank screen, completely gutted. It’s not an easy watch, but it’s one of those films that sticks with you, like a part of your own memory. The movie, directed by Zhang Yimou and starring the incredible Ge You and Gong Li, is an adaptation of Yu Hua’s novel. It follows the life of u Fugui, played by Ge You, from a reckless and gambling-addicted young man in the 1940s through decades of monumental change in China. The title, “To Live,” is the entire point of the film. It’s not about living a great, heroic, or even particularly happy life. It’s about the sheer, stubborn act of survival itself. Ge You’s performance is nothing short of masterful. He doesn’t just act Fugui; he seems to inhabit him. You see the transformation from the arrogant, silk-robed gambler who loses his family’s entire fortune to the humble, weathered man who endures one tragedy after another. There’s a scene where he’s performing with his shadow puppet troupe, and you can see the weight of every loss in his eyes, yet he’s still going through the motions, finding a sliver of purpose in the art that once saved him. Gong Li is equally powerful as Jiazhen, his wife. Her resilience is quieter but just as profound. She leaves him, comes back, and stands by him through famine, political turmoil, and unimaginable personal loss. Her strength is the kind that doesn’t shout; it just endures. The film doesn’t shy away from the brutal realities of the eras it depicts—the Civil War, the Great Leap Forward, the Cultural Revolution. It uses Fugui’s personal story as a lens to view these vast historical events. You don’t get a history lesson; you ge…