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Sunflower (2005)

Director: Zhang Yang

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Movie review

From Time Out New York

A Chinese family saga in three acts, Sunflower first introduces us to nine-year-old Xiangyang in 1976, when his father (Sun) returns from six years in a reeducation camp, determined to orchestrate the boy’s life. (His mother is played by the dependable Joan Chen.) The contentious father-son relationship is picked up again in 1987 and in 1999, as the two clash over school, girlfriends, career, grandchildren—you name it. Ultimately, Sunflower is more interesting for its time-lapse snapshots of Beijing in transition than for its schematic soap-opera plot.

Author: Tom Beer

Time Out New York Issue 620: August 16–22, 2007

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User reviews of this film

Leona Luk said...

Posted on Sep 09 2007 18:01 This jumps time to provide the highlights (or lowlights as the case may be) of a father-son relationship to the audience. Sometimes this can be a bit annoying, however the over all effect was quite delicate and touching. The audience I saw this with all had tears and sniffles by the end of the film...that or we all developed colds simultaneously. The aging of the father was quite well done. The aging of the mother, played by Joan Chen, was a bit less convincing because Joan Chen looks fabolous all the time - that and her neck remained smooth throughout the film, which is always a good indicator of age. Otherwise, no complaints.

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