Wang Xiaoshuai’s epic, muti-generational portrait of lives lived under China’s one child policy is both breathtaking and heartbreaking.
A tragedy takes place. It’s an innocent act that goes horribly wrong. No one is to blame. But the impact of it transforms the lives of those affected. Xiaoshuai’s film is both intimate in its portrait of loss and in tracing the journey of two families, but expansive in portraying these lives within the wider macrocosm of Chinese society from the 1980s through to the present day. We see how the Chinese government’s draconian policies not only exerted a severe emotional strain, but impacted families’ economic situation. Like a great Russian novel, So Long, My Son presents a panorama of a society, but never loses in detail what it achieves in scope..
★★★★★ Nigel Andrews, Financial Times
★★★★★ “Magnificent film-making” - Kevin Maher, The Times
★★★★★ “A moving poetic tale of everyday lives in changing times” - Dave Calhoun, Time Out
★★★★★ “A piercingly, profoundly moving picture that peels and exposes the senses” - Peter Bradshaw’s Film Of The Week, The Guardian
