The Road Home Dir Yimou Zhang
This is a simple enough story about a son who returns to his country home after many years of working in the city after learning of his father's death. Upon returning, his mother tells him that her wish is that his father by carried back to their home from a neighboring town which was a long lost tradition. Though the man is respected, the village is against the idea. Then we flash back to the tale of how the father and mother met and fell in love.
The young mother is played by a very cute and young Ziyi Zhang. Sometimes she looks like this:
and other times like this:
And occasionally like this:
Well, you get the idea. She is basically a small country girl that falls in love at first sight of the new school teacher that has moved to their town when he could not get a job in the city. So she pursues him and through her unbridled enthusiasm and cute looks, the teacher also falls for her.
The story is touching without being over sentimental. The emotions of the "old mother" will break your heart. Through the telling of the story when they are young, the son realizes why it is so important to fulfill his mother's wishes and works to get the town to support her.
Butterfly Lovers Dir Jingle Ma
The story of a daughter that comes from a wealthy noble family. She wants to go to school but that is a tradition only for men at the time. So she convinces her father to allow her to dress as a man to go out and attend school. Just a note, at no point does she ever look at all boyish, otherwise I am very gay.
During her schooling she falls in love with a fellow classmate. Then she receives a letter tell her to return home and her classmate accompany her for part of the way and then realizes that she is actually a woman (he must have been a bit dense) and they fall in love. But when she returns home, she finds that she has been tricked into an arranged marriage with her childhood friend whom she considers more like a brother.
Verdict: I am not sure how much I should reveal about the stories, for The Road Home, I don't see how spoilers can effect the movie since it is a simple story where the impact is not dependent on any plot reveals. For Butterfly Lovers, there is more conflict and fighting making it a love/action story. In the end, Butterfly Lovers was to sentimental and overly dramatic for me where the Road Home felt real like you were learning about how your parents might have met and fell in love.
Winner:
The Road Home