With a U.S. distribution deal in place, and acclaim already to his name, Zhang Yimou doesn’t have to show his latest “Coming Home” at the Cannes Film Festival. But it says something that even with the movie screening Out Of Competition, it’s one of the most anticipated dramas coming to the Croisette and a new trailer is here.
Starring Gong Li and Chen Daoming, the story follows a devoted couple who are forced to separate when Lu is arrested and sent to a labor camp as a political prisoner, just as his wife is injured in an accident. Released during the last days of the Cultural Revolution, he finally returns home only to find that his beloved wife has amnesia and remembers little of her past. Unable to recognize Lu, she patiently waits for her husband’s return. A stranger alone in the heart of his broken family, Lu Yanshi determines to resurrect their past together and reawaken his wife’s memory.
While the trailer isn’t subtitled, it looks like melodramatic stuff (not in a bad way), with a lot of emotion coursing through this tale. We’ll see how it goes once it unspools at Cannes and you can expect it in theaters later this year via Sony Pictures Classics. Watch below. [First Showing]