Coming Home (2014/Sony Blu-ray)

Picture: A Sound: B Extras: B Film: B+

Lu (Daoming Chen), after 13 years of exile in a Chinese labor camp, returns home to his wife Feng (international star Li Gong) and daughter only to find his wife has amnesia and no longer living with her. As he tries to re-enter their lives Feng is unable to recognize him, but Lu is determined to win her back with reminders of why she fell in love with him in the beginning in Yimou Zhang's Coming Home (2014).

Lu was imprisoned for being a political activist during Mao's Cultural Revolution. 10 years later, he broke out but then was brought back when his own daughter reported him in and he was forcefully taken away again. Because of that incident, Feng became traumatized and could no long remember Lu and for the next 3 years her daughter carried the guilt that she cause her mother to forget her father and was throw out from her home by her mother. Lu returns home to play the father that was never there, only to discover the hardships they went over over the years. As he struggles to repair the damage, he faces the possibility things could never return to the way before.

This was a drama filled film about family values and political loyalties. Your own kin, flesh and blood would betray you out of fear of being blacklisted by the government, but it is also about a quiet resilience, how Chinese were taught to endure all and eventually make peace with your own karma. Everything you are is what you make and what the government or those in political power thinks you deserve.

The 1080p 2.35 X 1 digital High Definition image transfer comes from a Sony CineAlta F65 HD camera and is looking really good for a camera know for being so cold in its image reproduction, but impresses throughout just the same, while the DTS-HD MA (Master Audio) 5.1 lossless mix is a mixdown from the Dolby Atmos 11.1 theatrical release in its best screenings, though was also available in Sonics-DDP, advanced sound for IMAX releases. This has a rich, solid soundfield throughout, but one wonders if were missing a bit something. Extras include a feature-length audio commentary track, Toronto Film Festival Q&A, and trailers.

- Ricky Chiang