What a beautiful movie. Living the Land takes place in a small village in the Henan province. Although the year is 1991, modernity has not touched the place. There’s intermittent electricity but the people still harvest the wheat by hand, make bricks by hand … life is difficult. 10-year-old Chuang lives in a crowded noisy world of grandmothers, great-grandmothers, cousins and aunts … his parents live far far away, they’ve left to find work. They also need to keep Chuang’s entire existence a secret, due to the one-child policy. Living the Land is clearly a very personal film for director Hou Meng. Gorgeously shot. I reviewed for Ebert.
