Coming Home (2014 film)

Plot

The story is adapted from the novel, The Criminal Lu Yanshi (陆犯焉识; 陸犯焉識) written by novelist Geling Yan.

Lu Yanshi (陆焉识; 陸焉識, "Yanshi" literally means "how to recognize") was a professor before being sent to the labor camp (laogai, literally "reform through labor") during the Cultural Revolution. He escaped from the labor camp in Xining to meet his long-missed wife Feng Wanyu (冯婉瑜; 馮婉瑜) and daughter Dandan (Chinese: 丹丹). However, the police were already waiting outside the house to arrest him.

Dandan, who was then a teenage ballerina, could not play the leading role in Red Detachment of Women due to her father's outlaw status. Under the temptation of regaining the leading role, Dandan revealed her parents' secret meeting plan to the police. The meeting ended with the capture of Lu but Dandan still didn't get the leading role. After the end of the Cultural Revolution, Lu came home only to find his broken family, his wife suffering from amnesia and his daughter working as textile worker. Under the shock of a former official's sexual harassment, his wife sometimes recognized him as Officer "Fang" instead of being her husband.

To reawaken his wife's memory, Lu played out as a total stranger just to be near with his wife. Although she recognized him as a letter reader or a piano tuner, he never could be able to be close enough to live with his chaste wife. During these years, Lu continued to write to his wife as a way of communicating with her, and to convince his wife to forgive their daughter.

The movie ended with Feng waiting to receive her husband outside the railway station and Lu standing with her on a snowy day, pretending to be pedicab driver.

Cast

Production

The film was shot in Tianjin and Beijing.

Releases

Coming Home had its international premiere at the 2014 Cannes Film Festival in the out of competition section. It was scheduled to be screened in the Special Presentations section of the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival.

Critical reception

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film has a rating of 92% based on 63 reviews. On Metacritic, the film has a score of 81 out of 100.

Box office

The film grossed ¥23.7 million (US$3.80 million) on the first day in China and reached US$46,000,000. It earned a total of US$49.7 million internationally.