Film: Aftershock (2010)

Director: Feng Xiaogang

Cast: Fan Xu, Jingchu Zhang, Chen Li

Genre: Art House/International/Drama

“When told only one child could be saved, my mother said, ‘Save my son.’ These words keep ringing inside my ears. Dad, it’s not that I don’t remember. It’s just that I can never forget.”

from Aftershock

“He who has gone, so we but cherish his memory, abides with us, more potent, nay, more present than the living man.”

Antoine de Saint-Exupéry

Getting to “Forgive Me”

Most tearjerkers set you up by making you fall in love with the characters and then leading you by degrees into a spectacular tragedy. Aftershock manages to make you cry within the first 20 minutes.

How? By introducing themes so profound and universal and depicting them with such cinematographic sensitivity that our attachment to the characters and their plight is fast-tracked. (read entire review)