Review | Film review: Youth – Feng Xiaogang’s coming-of-age melodrama a nostalgic look at love during wartime
Mixing graceful dance scenes with gruesome battle sequences, Youth presents a rose-tinted view of China’s Cultural Revolution and war with Vietnam, but its narrative about the loss of innocence of its young characters is fascinating
3.5/5 stars
The seismic social and political changes in 1970s and ’80s China form the backdrop to director Feng Xiaogang’s ( I Am Not Madame Bovary ) sprawling tale of youthful longings, life-altering tragedies and enduring regrets, adapted by Chinese author Yan Geling from her semi-autobiographical novel.
But, as the millions of cinema-goers who made it one of December’s top-grossing films in China would attest, Feng’s nostalgic coming-of-age drama about members of a People’s Liberation Army dance troupe is far less brutal in its historical assessment than its portrayal of the fickleness of young hearts.
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Narrated with wistful hindsight by dancer Xiao Suizi (Elaine Zhong Chuxi), who would in time experience her own heartbreak, Youth begins with the arrival of new Beijing recruit He Xiaoping (Miao Miao), accompanied on her trip by the Chengdu performance art unit’s resident hero Liu Feng (Huang Xuan).
