Aftershock 唐山大地震

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After my visitation to China, I was recommended to this local movie " 唐山大地震“ Aftershock.
I am not sure if this would be right to write a review about it now when an actual earthquake disaster has hit our neighboring countries, New Zealand and Japan.
What made me watch this movie was the storyline about a mother having to choose between 2 of her children, where she can only choose 1. Who should she choose? And as a child who was abandon, do you have the right to feel the hatred - after all if it was you who got saved , is it fair? Either way, it's a grey area.



English Synopsis
This movie was directed by Feng Xiaogang, the nation’s most commercially successful director.It tells the story of a mother, Yuan Ni, and her daughter and son, Fang Zeng and Fang Da, and how their lives are forever changed by a historic early morning earthquake in 1976.

Favoritism is slowly evident in the movie- where the mother gives the only fruit left to the son and tells the daughter that she will buy it for her another time.

The earthquake hits and both parents rush home in hopes of rescuing their children. Just as Yuan Ni is about to run into their residential building as its coming down, her husband pulls her back and runs in instead, only to be crushed, but saving her life.All alone, she start searching for her children. Rescuers find them buried and trapped in the rubble.



The rescuers eventually conclude that only one child can be saved, that to save one would crush the other, and the mother must make an impossible choice but a choice nonetheless. Respectably, she agonizes forever, insisting that at first that both be saved, but as the rescue workers get tired of waiting for her to come around to reality, and are called to go help rescue others, she decides and chooses her son. Fang Zeng, still alive, still conscious, but unable to say anything with the slab of concrete crushing down on her, overhears.



As the rain falls and hydrates her lips, Fang Zeng awakes to find herself left all alone - with her dead father beside her.
Thankfully, the soldier rescuers take her as their own and raise her up.



However, this hatred and disappointment in her mother's choice is a deep memory in her life and she bears this unforgiveness for a long long time... till another earthquake happens in her hometown again and she found her brother there...


She goes back to her old house where her mother has continued staying, harboring the hope that one day her husband and her daughter will come back. Indeed her daughter did. Both parties beg for forgiveness from one another - and the movie ends with a final thought in everyone's mind : if it was I, what would I have done?

Chinese Synopsis
1976年7月27日夜，唐山地区爆发7.8级强烈地震，房屋倒塌，灾民无数。面对即将坍塌的危楼，丈夫方大强（张国强 饰）和妻子李元妮（徐帆 饰）都要去救被困的龙凤胎儿女方登（张子枫 饰）、方达（张家骏 饰）。危急时刻，方大强拦住了妻子，冲进去营救时不幸罹难。李元妮在震后发现，一双儿女被困在一块水泥板两端，若要营救，必然牺牲一方。情急之下，她做出了艰难选择——救弟弟。此事成为方登心中难以磨灭的隐痛。后来，她被军人王德清（陈道明 饰）夫妇收养。高考后，方登（张静初 饰）进入杭州医学院学习，并与研究生师兄杨志（陆毅 饰）产生了感情……方达被救却断了胳膊，李元妮以无私的母爱抚养他成人。成年后的方达（李晨 饰）去杭州闯荡，娶了媳妇小河（王子文 饰），并干出了一番事业。32年后，这家人的命运却因为5·12汶川地震再次发生了交叠.

A preview


Personally I had very high expectations for the movie - and I found the actors and actresses amazing and the cinematography were nice - however it did not draw me like I felt it would. Probably they should have more twists in the movie - more emotions when the brother met his sister once again - when the mother met her daughter once again - found that a little lacking towards the end.

But all in all, a good movie with good characters.

The backstage scenes