An infinite talent... An impossible dream... An incredible journey...

Chen Kaige, whose films tend to swing between monumental epics (THE EMPEROR AND THE ASSASSIN) and period dramas (FAREWELL MY CONCUBINE), brings his trademark storytelling brilliance and elegant vision to his latest gem, TOGETHER, which appeared in the Masters Programme at the 2002 Toronto International Film Festival. Based loosely on a true story, the crowd-pleasing TOGETHER weaves a beautiful coming-of-age tale that touches the heart with the same harmony and intensity as a complex musical orchestration. In a small southern Chinese town, a young boy named Xiao Chun (Tan Yun), having learned to play the violin from his now deceased mother, has become the village virtuoso. His irrepressibly optimistic father Liu Chen (Liu Peiqi), an ordinary cook, takes Xiao to the big city, Beijing, to compete in a violin contest. However, Xiao encounters his first taste of competition politics and fails to win the prize, inspiring Liu Chen to start looking for a top-flight Beijing violin teacher for his son. Taking up quarters in the city, they discover an eccentric lovelorn violin mentor for Xiao and, while the boy shyly undergoes his musical education, Xiao becomes infatuated with the nightclub girl who lives next door, Li Li (Chen Hong). So the sensitive Xiao begins his intoxicating and emotional rite of passage, rich with heartbreak, failure and triumph. As he nears his goal of becoming a professional violinist, learning the tricks of power as he goes, he grows more and more detached from his peasant father until, in the nick of time, he finally comes to understand the true meaning of music. TOGETHER is the ultimate heartwarming experience, blessed with music that sends shivers up the spine and cinematographically bathed in a fairy tale glowing light that is frame-for-frame one of the most stunningly beautiful films of the year.

“A feel-good movie and an intimate look at the changing social life of urban China. The actors are triumphant in roles that defy expectations.” – Kirk Honeycutt, Hollywood Reporter