So long, my son is a film that tells the story of two married couples, and how they had adjust and adapt to the social and economic changes that were taking place in China from the 1980s to the present. Liu Yaojun and Shen Yingming were two close friends, they both married at the same times and even have kids at the same times in the 1980s, Liu Xing is Liu Yaojun’s son and Shen Hao is Shen Yingming’s son, when Liu xin was 12, he was playing with Shen Hao near a reservoir, Liu Xing can’t swim but Shen Hao kept instigate him to have a try. However, Liu Xing was growing to death, and Liu Yaojun’s family was so desperate and when his wife was pregnant again she was forced to have a abortion due to the one child policy and eventually she lost fertility so she can never be a mom again. Later they adopted a son and had given him the same name as their dead son. And later they moved to the big city for a living, life was difficult but their adopted son was clearly not understanding the hardship that they were going through and disappeared. Liu Yaojun and his wife eventually decide to go back to the place where they lost his son. Part melodrama, part critique of The Times, presenting us from the turmoil of the 1980s after the cultural revolution to prosperity.
The film tells of the sorrows and joys of several families in China during the three decades from the early 1980s to the early 21st century. Several groups of people’s life experiences, along with the flow of plot by the time and space switch, jointly portrayed a generation of people who were deeply hurt by policy changes (family planning, layoffs, etc.) after the reform and opening up. At the same time, the development of the fate of the characters is also the process of deconstructing the social structure. After the reform and opening up, China’s economy has developed at its fastest time, and at the same time, the policies affected countless people who are constantly undergoing dramatic changes. While improving the living conditions of most urban residents, it will gradually drop some people who cannot keep up, and they are inevitably injured in the wave of the times.
Actually, my mom had the same experience, she was forced to do a abortion when she was pregnant with my older brother, she already had my older sister at that times, due to the pain of losing my brother, when my mom was pregnant with me again, she decide to keep me and my family was fined. This movie is 3 hours long, but it’s definitely a good one and i highly recommend it.
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