AN unspeakable sadness hangs over almost every scene in Coming Home, a movie with a theme - the Cultural Revolution and its tragic aftermath - that resonates powerfully among the many millions whose lives were affected in some way by it. Directed by Zhang Yimou and based on a novel by Yan Geling, the movie follows a family struggling to overcome adversity by rebuilding the past - brick by solitary brick.

The failed socio-political experiment initiated by Mao Zedong and known as "The Great Leap Forward" lasted only a decade (1966-76), but its effects lingered on for much longer, most markedly in the people who were ruthlessly persecuted for being enemies of China's Communist Party. It was a time when resistance was futile, spirits were broken and family members were forced to turn on each other.

Zhang, a much-venerated "Fifth Generation" director who came of age during the revolution, has returned to the period drama, a genre he exploited with notable success early in his career (Red Sorghum, 1987, Ju Dou, 1990 and Raise the Red Lantern, 1991 to name a few). All featured his longtime muse Gong Li and she returns to the frame in Coming Home, playing a middle-aged woman devastated by the Party's purge of her husband and the questionable actions of their daughter.