A young man returns from the city for his father's funeral. Much of the film is a flashback of his parent's courting. Mom has turned the burial process into an extension of her lifelong love story. Mom wants some traditional practices that have not been observed for half a century to be followed for dad's burial. This includes physically carrying his body back from the hospital to the village, miles over mountainous terrain and shouting "this is the road home" the whole way. Dad was the village teacher and highly respected. Between mom's tenacious wishes and the respect that the village has for dad, enough old men (young folks, like the son, have left the area) are mustered for this effort. Mom had hoped that her son would take over as the village teacher. The final scene shows the son organizing and teaching a class using the script from his father's original lesson plan book, the final homage to his parents' lifelong love story.
Highlights include views of the vast countryside. The openness is a stark contrast to city conditions.
The traditional theme in this movie dramatically contrasts with some of Peter Hessler's observations from Country Driving: "nobody has today's China figured out" (p. 47). Hessler was describing the confusion that has ensued from the joint upheavals of the Cultural Revolution and industrialization on today's Chinese society. The Road Home stands as a contrast, showing some older village folk holding onto a lifestyle that has endured for generations but is currently waning.
What is the contrast between the U.S. and China when it comes to the social upheaval and changes that industrialization and now technologization have brought?
At first glance it was hard to imagine how this movie about rural Chinese life and culture could possibly hold relevance for my inner city middle school students. However, universal themes about conflicting intergenerational aspirations ring clear. I would use the video to focus primarily on the conflicting aspirations theme and secondarily weave in aspects of cultural context.
This film introduced a human element to what I need to look for when we get to China. Previously, I had been trying to get a handle on the large picture. China is a vast country with many different regions and a formidable history. The Road Home provided a human dynamic to how that history influenced a fictional family in today's China.
A strong value to this film is that it personifies traditional Chinese values in mom. The film (or excerpts from it) could be used in class to demonstrate how traditional values and practices continue to influence Chinese life, values to which the son eventually kowtows.
This film presents the conflict between tradition and modernity set in the backdrop of a love story. Liner notes mention that the parents' marriage was noteworthy because it was not an arranged marriage and the first love match in their village. It's interesting how traditional mom has become after the untraditional start of her relationship.