Message from ssmith

[Anonymous]

After reading the book Wild Swans: 3 Daughters of China, the movie "To Live" provided a terrific recap of that era in China. The movie highlights the struggles of one family from the 40's through the 60's. One image that stuck with me was the period where doctors were put into detention while young medical students with very little training were put in charge at hospitals and the obvious damage and destruction this caused to many people's health and lives. The struggle of people to survive the conditions brought on by the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution, and to rise above them, was both heartbreaking and inspiring. It seems so sad that so much of some people's lifetimes was spent on needless struggle. I highly recommend this movie, and it is probably the best depiction of that time period of any Chinese film I have seen so far.