LIFE ON A STRING Movie Review

Though director Chen Kaige's tale of an aged musician and his young apprentice may seem just a bit too leisurely from time to time, the film's enchantingly spiritual story and poetic imagery more than compensate. The old musician has been blind since childhood, but he is not without hope; the teacher who taught him to master his stringed instrument, the sanxian, has assured him that when a lifetime of perfecting his music causes him to break his one-thousandth string, his sight will be restored. Whether this is meant to be a literal restoration of sight or a symbolic path to understanding through art is open to debate, and the old man and his young assistant do precisely that. As they travel through the magnificent landscapes that one of them can see with his eyes and one of them can feel with his heart, Life on a String becomes a consciousness-expanding journey of faith, spirituality and knowledge—a memorable and powerfully felt modern fable. Though Life on a String received only limited release in the U.S., Chen's next film, Farewell My Concubine, would bring him international recognition as well as two Academy Award nominations.

NEXT STOP … Farewell My Concubine, The Horse Thief, Kundun

1990 110m/C CH D: Chen Kaige; C: Gu Changwei. VHS FCT, KIV