The Road Home: Color and Symbolism

The Road Home director, Zhang Yimou, used traditional color meanings along with other forms of symbolism to create depth and beauty in what could have otherwise been a simple, quiet story. Yimou effectively portrayed the main character's emotions through the use of color, and the symbolism of the environment, her actions and the objects surrounding her. Because of the wealth of material this would be to cover, I will be focusing in on color and the environment.

In the film, the main character, Di, has a case of love at first sight when she first sees the towns new teacher, Luo Changyu. During this first moment, Di is wearing red, a color of luck and happiness. This is a direct connection to the character's euphoric joy at this moment. This first connection takes place during summer; representative of the character's liveliness and energy that brings new joy into her life. After this moment, Di runs home and changes into a pink top, representative of the fact that she is in love and proudly displaying it.

As the film continues, the seasons change- slowly progressing into fall. The colors of the environment slowly become more orange and yellow, representative of spontaneity- fitting as Di and Changyu slowly begin to take to chances of expressing their interest in each other. When Changyu is being taken to the city due to unclear circumstances (cultural revolution is inferred), he gives Di a red barrette to go with the red top he first saw her in. This reflects back to their luck and happiness in finding each other.

As time continues to pass without the return of Changyu, the seasons change to winter, becoming bleak and white. With this color choice and the symbolism of the loss of happiness as Di's love is missing with the uncertainty of return. White is representative of death in Chinese color; in this instance reflecting the death of Di's happiness in Changyu's absence rather than the death of a person.

All the while, there are traces of the color red as Di fights to hold on to her luck and love. The Road Home shows the visual manifestations of the main character's emotions, creating a vivid depiction of love, life, and the beauty in memories.