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Together

Mixed or average reviews
Based on 24 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?
Based on 8 votes
Read user comments
Rate this movie >
Movie Info
Genre(s): Musical
Written by: Xue Xiao Lu
Directed by: Chen Kaige
Release Date:
Theatrical: May 30, 2003
DVD: November 18, 2003
Running Time: 116 minutes, Color
Origin: China / South Korea
Summary
RATING: PG for mild language and thematic elements
Starring Tang Yun, Liu Peiqi, Chen Hong, Wang Zhiwen, and Chen Kaige
A coming-of-age tale woven together with the harmony and intensity of a complex musical orchestration. (MGM)
Also On Metacritic
FILM: The Emperor and the Assassin The Promise
Also On The Web: Internet Movie Database View The Trailer Official Studio Site
What The Critics Said
All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...
Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold
Together is a likely candidate to become that one foreign-language film that jumps out of the art houses each year to become a mainstream phenomenon.
Read Full Review >Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington
It's hard to watch and listen to Together without, in some sense, having your heart lifted by its music.
Read Full Review >Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert
A movie with the nerve to end with melodramatic sentiment--and get away with it, because it means it. Expect lots of damp eyes in the audience.
Read Full Review >Dallas Observer Jean Oppenheimer
Viewers with a low tolerance for sentiment may balk, but the emotions are so true and the characters so appealing that the film should completely win you over.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Ann Hornaday
A true original, thanks to some memorable characters, an engaging story and a thrilling classical soundtrack.
Read Full Review >Time Richard Corliss
Isn't an audience that was nurtured on the doomsday screeds of art-house cinema entitled to vacation in the warmth of a superior film about a boy with almost too many people to love?
Read Full Review >Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum
To contextualize the story's lack of subtlety, it helps to see these casting choices as ongoing penance for the time when, as a boy, Chen denounced his own father to the Red Guard.
Read Full Review >Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan
Though moving, Together needed more opera to send us where great music frequently goes -- nearly over the edge.
Read Full Review >Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea
Together's mix of classical gems and composer Zhao Lin's plaintive score is stirring, soaring stuff.
Read Full Review >Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern
Pays off in surprising ways, when love of music, and fame, plays second fiddle to love of family.
Chicago Reader Ted Shen
Chen tries to generate some suspense, but there's never any doubt which side has to win.
Read Full Review >The New York Times Stephen Holden
Together may not be overtly political, but its vision of contemporary Beijing, where brazen, fashion-crazed gold diggers like Lili bait their hooks to snare arrogant, slippery wheeler-dealers who end up playing her for a sucker, has bite.
Read Full Review >Premiere Aaron Hillis
It may be a crowd-pleasing escapism, but it's that feel-good shmaltz that ultimately plays the film off-key.
Read Full Review >Boston Globe Wesley Morris
The film doesn't amount to an emotionally palpable experience. Most of the stops it attempts to pull out are rusty. The movie ends with a gigantic lump in its throat, one that would take a tall glass of Barbara Stanwyck to wash down.
Read Full Review >The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Ray Conlogue
If you're in the mood for tears and triumph, with a dash of exoticism, Together may well be the film for you.
Read Full Review >Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez
A high tolerance for syrupy melodrama is required in order to enjoy Together.
Read Full Review >Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas
The result is a sure-fire crowd-pleaser that will strike Chen's admirers as a heartfelt but decidedly minor effort.
Read Full Review >Village Voice Dennis Lim
Mawkishly clichéd as it is, Together is an odder hybrid than it first appears -- at once populist and deeply cynical about the price of popularity.
Read Full Review >Variety Derek Elley
The plucky music student who overcomes adversity is a staple subgenre of mainland cinema and, though Chen Kaige directs with greater slickness and more finesse and humor, there's still little to differentiate Together from any other state-studio pic.
Read Full Review >Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten
The performances are all terrific, but Together never jells as a compelling narrative.
Read Full Review >LA Weekly John Powers
Its schmaltzy manipulations are pure 1940s Hollywood. Still, if you can get past the corn, the story exerts a not-unsatisfying emotional pull thanks to Yun's soulful gravity and a tenderness that Chen hasn't shown quite so openly since his 1984 debut, "Yellow Earth."
Read Full Review >The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias
Miles away from "Farewell, My Concubine" in form and function, with thinly defined characters and unreflective attitudes about urban values vs. country values, the film would be impossible to identify as Chen's if his name weren't in the opening credits.
Read Full Review >Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan
Torpid, syrupy melodrama from the Chinese director of 1993's "Farewell My Concubine."
Read Full Review >New York Magazine Peter Rainer
Since this is a coming-of-age movie about a poor rural kid who grapples with the big city, it would be nice if its protagonist werent such a lummox.
Read Full Review >What Our Users Said
The average user rating for this movie is 8.8 (out of 10) based on 8 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.
patrick d. gave it a10:
BRILLIANT!!!!!
Yoon Min C. gave it an 8:
Very decent film. however, kaige wavers between making a heartwarming father/son movie or a truly honest artmovie about artistic spirit or social reality. he settles for something rather lukewarm, middle-of-the-road. at times, the movie seems courageous and uncompromised. but, it gradually but almost inevitably leads to a classic happy ending with the endearing but tired message that love and integrity matter more than glory and fame.
Marc K. gave it a 7:
Good, but not great. I felt the male characters were rather drab, and the only one who provided any energy to the scenes were the ones with the vivacious woman. I had remained dry-eyed until the last five minutes, when I finally succumbed.
Patrick G. gave it a 9:
I've traveled in China extensively, before the capitalist revolution and after. I think the director captures the essence of the two different periods. If the viewer pays attention, there are a lot of subtle messages in the film that reflect what has changed in the attitudes of the pople in modern China. The story is simple but told convincingly. I enjoyed the movie.
Michele C. gave it a 9:
I loved Together, a heartwarming film about a father's quest to develop the classical violin career of his young son. Fine acting performances from Lui Peiqi as the father, and Wang Zhiwen as one of the prodigy's teachers. The music is absolutely superb. This movie is impassioned and beautifully photographed. Films about father/son love and devotion are rare, at least in the United States. This is one movie I will purchase for my personal library. I left the theater feeling as fulfilled as I was when I first viewed Cinema Paradiso.
