In the Chinese film To Live, tragedy, suffering, and poverty are all depicted throughout the movie, but tied in with wisdom, love, and determination. Nothing is so bad that you can't go on, and this is shown all the way through the entire production.

Fugui and his wife Jiazhen struggle through life just by doing everyday things Americans wouldn't think about today. Fugui and Jiazhen are a married couple that don't let poverty get in the way of their happiness. No matter what happens, they always go on. Fugui is a man who liked to gamble but soon realized that putting family first is a top priority. Jiazhen is a kind, caring mother and a loving wife. She is mainly the person who keeps Fugui straight through the hard times in the movie. I give them credit for such a dedication to optimism. For example, they became very broke, but they were glad. They wanted to be poor townspeople. Jiazhen suffered from a temporary loss of her husband when he went to war, but with a positive att

itude begun to raise Youquing on her own until Fugui returned. Both Jiazhen and Fugui suffered in the great loss of losing their son, Youquing in a dreadful accident at school, getting run over by a car. They had also suffered in losing their daughter, Fengxia from giving birth, but showed such great hopefulness that they found their lives to be back on track in no time.

As a viewer, this film had a great impact on me. I went into the show with low expectations. I don't normally watch movies with great variety. Instead, I am always looking for something that might appeal to me. I felt that this film was very enlightening and informative. It gave good background on Chinese history, and I can now say that I know a little more about early China.

Jiazhen and Fugui loved their children greatly. This made it easy for them to have such big hearts. Fengxia, their daughter experienced her share of hardships, also. She had permanently lost her voice from a horrible sickness as a child, witnessed her brother dying, and when giving birth, she fought for her last living moments due to an internal hemorrhage. However, before her fatal accident, she had a strong strength of mind and didn't let anything get in the way of living her life like a normal person. Time and time again she dusted herself off and picked

Some common words found in the essay are:
Jiazhen Fugui, Leap Forward, Fugui Jiazhen, , China Youquing, Mao Zedong, Communist Party, Wan Erxi, Red Book, jiazhen fugui, China's Communist, mao zedong, son youquing, town leader, leap forward, giving birth, throughout movie,
Approximate Word count = 891
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)