The Asian Economist

Zhang Yi Mou’s 1999 film, “The Road Home” is a nostalgic film looking at the return of Luo Yu Sheng, to his rural home, and mother, Zhao Di, after receiving the news of his father, Luo Chang Yu dies of heart complications. Zhang Yi Mou’s film looks nostalgically at the interaction between Zhao Di and Lou Chang Yu in the late 1950’s and then Zhao Di and Luo Yu Sheng’s decision process on how to carry out the funeral of Luo Chang Yu in present day China. The end decision is to take Luo Chang Yu’s body in its coffin to the resting place from the provincial hospital morgue by foot, so that according to local superstition, Luo Chang Yu’s ghost, if it becomes lost in the after life, can find itself home by taking the road it last took with its wife/widow. The end result is that since Luo Chang Yu was the local teacher in the area for ‘40 years’, nearly 100 old students of his come to the service in order to carry his coffin back home, to the old well that faces the school where he taught, and where the majority of the plot points happen.
Zhang Yi Mou portrays the film as a nostalgic look on a romance between two individuals that is now gone, through the use of colour (multi-color, and black and white). However, it could also be argued that Zhang Yi Mou’s “The Road Home” is about the question of existence. On the one hand, the question of existence could refer to the meaning behind any individuals existence, but in the case of “The Road Home”, the question of existence could just as well be the what and how of the existence of individuals, not the why. What and how do people exist as, as a group with herd mentality, acting utilitarian, or as single entities in a space, is an issue that runs through Zhang Yi Mou’s “The Road Home”. Zhang Yi Mou’s “The Road Home” then answers this by  arguing that all individuals exist on this ‘plane’ as single entities that are completely alone, from beginning to end, and it is that inherent loneliness that causes them to execute their choice of actions.

There are a few significant ways in which this issue of existence as a single individual, completely alone on this ‘plane’ of existence from start to finish can be seen in Zhang Yi Mou’s “The Road Home”.
Zhao Di, as Yu Sheng’s mother, and the major character in the film is a perfect example of what Zhang Yi Mou is arguing through “The Road Home”. The audience is not informed much about Zhao Di’s prior background before her introduction into the movie ‘flashback’ as a young 18 year old girl played by Zhang Zi Yi, who is struck by the appearance of the new teacher, Chang Yu, the narrators dead father, after his arrival in the village. Not much is shown of their interaction, as it is made up of simple glances, small irrelevant conversation. Since this is set in the 1950’s, Luo Chang Yu is called back to the city due to the Maoist Anti-rightist campaign, leaving Zhao Di for an unspecified duration of time. When the date for his arrival comes around, she waits in a winter blizzard for him, eventually falling sick. She tries again a second time, only to fall sick, and call his attention from the city to take care of her, resulting in his punishment for another two years. Zhao Di’s character, though it may present an individual who is experiencing intense human emotions, is really a portrayal of an individual wandering around, alone on a plane of existence. Zhao Di has no one to advise her, and instead takes care of her mother, who has gone near-blind for ambiguous causes and due to age, is not in the most-perfect position to do everything. Furthermore, her mother is rather conservative.

Zhao Di’s character as an inherently unintentional lonely singular individual is made evidence of through her entry as an 18 year old girl greeting the arrival of the new teacher. She is introduced separate, though as a part of the crowd greeting the new teacher, but arriving separately and on her own. What’s more, her eyes have a searching look in them (not noticeable, but it is there), as if she is looking for something that is not there. Maybe it’s the teacher, but this anxious, searching look continues on in her first interactions with Luo Chang Yu after his arrival at the village. This is the first instance where the Road Home is a film about human existence. Zhao Di’s character is alone, separate from all individuals, and bonded in no way to anything or anyone, because, since humans come into existence alone, they live and die alone, with all ‘bonds’ acting as psychological fillers to act as fake substances for the sub-conscious loneliness that exists in all of them. Zhao Di’s uncertain, searching eyes confirm this. She seems unsure of this new development, and all the while is excited by it. This, in fact is a new entity in that plane of existence existing in the village that her self is acknowledging as something there to help solve that lonely existence.

To support this claim, is the fact that Zhao Di’s ‘love’ for this new individual is quite intense. The scene of her walking out in the blizzard, and then of her attempt to walk to the city in the middle of the blizzard show this. When she walks out there, against her mothers orders, the most notable thing is that she is alone. Again, the audience is presented with an image of loneliness. Zhao Di is a single entity attempting to solve that loneliness after Luo Chang Yu’s departure for the city. Her actions are precipitated by that loneliness and thus she tries to solve it, even though it means possible injury. This reflects the argument that Zhang Yi Mou’s “The Road Home” is about human existence and what and how it is. In both scenes, Zhao Di acts alone, on her motives, acting because of that sub-conscious loneliness that creates and surrounds her existence on the plane that is the village.

The third scene supporting this is the last part, where Zhao Di’s son, Luo Yu Sheng, reads out Luo Chang Yu’s personal book to the class in the old classroom, many decades on and she hears their voices mixed (Chang Yu and Yu Sheng) on the wind and walks on her own, as an aged woman to the class room. This scene is interspersed with film takes of the flashback as multi-colour (almost recalling a theme of halcyon days), and the present as black and white. This scene demonstrates the single existence of human beings through Zhao Di’s action of walking alone to simply hear her son teach at the old school because it shows that there is a psychological gap that has been opened up again by the death of her husband that had never been solved in the first place. The singular existence of the entity “Zhao Di”, is still singular, even after the fake filler that was her husband - which was a fake filler for that emptiness, and which was re-emptied after his death. In the end, she is still just as lonely and attempts to solve that by hearing her son’s voice teaching the students, when in fact its simply just a nostalgic look at halcyon days that are gone. Therefore, Zhao Di, in this part has demonstrated herself as a singular entity from start to end executing actions because of that singular existence.

In conclusion, Zhang Yi Mou’s film “The Road Home”, is a film questioning the nature of human existence and answering that question with the proposition that humans exist singularly and on their own as separate individuals. Any bonds that are formed with others are simply false, and psychological, even though the singular nature of that individuals existence seems solved. They are born, live, and die alone. This existentialist argument is the argument made by Zhang Yi Mou’s “The Road Home”.