I saw my first movie in Hong Kong on Wednesday night. The movie is called . It is a chinese movie by Feng Xiaogang about the 1976 Earthquake in Tangshan, which was one of the largest most devastating earthquakes in the world. Over 240,000 people lost their lives. The movie opens with a boom with the special effects give a realistic depiction of what happened at midnight in Tangshan. After the earthquake the city is destroyed and a family is torn apart. A concrete slab is crushing a mother’s daughter and son. The mother is forced to save either the son or the daughter because of time and where the slab is. The mother can’t choose but they tell her “choose or loose both.” She chooses the mother. She is evacuated from the area with the feeling that her daughter is dead. She is not.
The movie then tells the story of both children and the mother, who is racked with guilt. She doesn’t get married and refuses to get married or even to move from her home since she feels that her daughter and husbands spirits will return one day. The movie is a tear jerker that is for sure. There were a lot of sad moments and places where you are force to ask the questions of “what would I have done if I were here?"
Almost 30 years pass before the big earthquake comes in Sichuan province. The movie continues on to its conclusion with lots of tears at the end. I did like the movie. I liked the look and feel of it. I liked the underlining message of: life is a gift and we should cherish every moment of it, since we don’t know when it will be taken away.