2/5
This movie's title is translated as Fengming, A Chinese Memoir, and that's really exactly what this movie is, unfortunately. Here is the setup for this three hour long movie: A woman talks about her life. And voila, we have a movie at the Cannes Film Festival. Disgraceful! There are only three camera movements in this entire movie, all of them worthless. The rest of this movie is a static head-on view of an old Chinese woman talking for three hours. In Chinese. Which meant I read her story for three hours. That's exactly what I feel this movie should be, a written memoir for people to read. There is nothing filmic about this movie in the least--it is simple videography. I almost feel as if the director just took the cheapest, laziest, quickest route possible and thought it would be hailed by those who love "artsy" stuff. An ambitious, dedicated, or at least competent director would have actually made a movie out of the story she is telling.
Even so, her story was moving and quite engrossing. I didn't actually look at my watch (disgruntled) until around 2 hours in, which is a testament to her story, I suppose. There are two or three emotionally crushing parts, and her voice--the way she trembles, stops, and cries--is incredibly important at getting across that message. Even so, this should be a book (or at least an audio recording), not a movie. I would not recommend watching this, but if you are interested in China's Cultural Revolution and anti-rightist movements, her story is very appealing and, according to the woman, she is writing a book about her history, so you should probably check that book out and not this movie.
IMDb link: http://imdb.com/title/tt1032880/