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Together
United Artists


8.8

based on 24 reviews
Read critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

based on 8 votes
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Rate this movie

FILM:

MPAA 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)

GENRE(S):	Musical
WRITTEN BY:	Xue Xiao Lu
DIRECTED BY:	Chen Kaige
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: November 18, 2003 Video: November 18, 2003 Theatrical: May 30, 2003
RUNNING TIME:	116 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	China / South Korea
LANGUAGE(S):	Mandarin (with English subtitles)

Original title “Han Ni Zai Yiki”; Winner, Silver Seashell, Best Director and Best Actor (Liu), 2002 San Sebastián International Film Festival

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...

100

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.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's hard to watch and listen to Together without, in some sense, having your heart lifted by its music.

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.

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.

Washington Post Ann Hornaday

A true original, thanks to some memorable characters, an engaging story and a thrilling classical soundtrack.

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?

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.

Portland Oregonian Kim Morgan

Though moving, Together needed more opera to send us where great music frequently goes -- nearly over the edge.

Philadelphia Inquirer Steven Rea

Together's mix of classical gems and composer Zhao Lin's plaintive score is stirring, soaring stuff.

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.

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.

Premiere Aaron Hillis

It may be a crowd-pleasing escapism, but it's that feel-good shmaltz that ultimately plays the film off-key.

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.

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.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

A high tolerance for syrupy melodrama is required in order to enjoy Together.

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.

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.

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.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

The performances are all terrific, but Together never jells as a compelling narrative.

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."

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.

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Torpid, syrupy melodrama from the Chinese director of 1993's "Farewell My Concubine."

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 weren’t such a lummox.

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.

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Together United Artists

Together
United Artists