International Review of Humanities Studies www.irhs.ui.ac.id, e-ISSN: 2477-6866, p-ISSN: 2527-9416 Vol.4, No.2, October 2019 (Special Issue), pp. 839-856 THE DESTRUCTION OF FAMILY INSTITUTION IN THE FILM Coming Home（归来 Guilai）by Zhang Yimou（张艺谋） Sonia Ashari Chinese Studies Program, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia Nurni Wahyu Wuryandari Chinese Studies Program, Faculty of Humanities, Universitas Indonesia ABSTRACT The film Coming Home（归来 Guilai）tells a story about a prisoner, Lu Yanshi, returning home. He returns home twice. Firstly, he returns home by escaping prison because he misses his family. Secondly, Lu comes home after receiving a notice of rehabilitation from the Government. Neither of his coming home makes him happy. He finds his family unable to be whole as it used to be. How did the destruction of Lu Yanshi family happen, and what are the reasons? To answer this question, the film was examined in three ways, by discussing the setting of the story, by revealing the characters and the characterizations in the film, and by uncovering how the story of Guilai was told. These three ways may expose the main story of the film and can help us understand Lu family’s suffering. Essentially, the film was dissected using intrinsic approach; meanwhile, the story and the dialogues presented in the movie would be interpreted to reveal meanings. The findings of the research suggest that the condition suffered by Lu Yanshi family is caused by the policy implemented during Cultural Revolution. Even though the Cultural Revolution is over, Lu Yanshi family cannot be whole and happy as it was before the Cultural Revolution in China. KEYWORDS: Family Destruction; Cultural Revolution; The Film Guilai: Zhang Yimou INTRODUCTION Coming Home（归来 Guilai）is one of the literary adaptation films directed by Zhang Yimou （张艺谋）1. The story was adapted from the last 30 pages of the novel entitled The Criminal Lu Yanshi（陆犯焉识） authored by Yan Geling （严歌苓）. This film was released in 16 May 2014. In 30 June, this movie received Hong Kong Film Award for Best Chinese Language Film from the Two Coasts in 2015. Guilai is starred by Chen Daoming （陈道明）as Lu Yanshi （陆焉识）, Gong Li （巩俐）as Feng Wanyu （冯婉瑜）, Lu Yanshi’s wife, and a 1Zhang Yimou is one of the fifth generation of filmmakers in China who produced a lot of well-known movies which many received various awards. 839 International Review of Humanities Studies www.irhs.ui.ac.id, e-ISSN: 2477-6866, p-ISSN: 2527-9416 Vol.4, No.2, October 2019 (Special Issue), pp. 839-856 newcomer Zhang Huiwen （张慧雯）as Dan Dan （丹丹）, Lu Yanshi’s daughter. As suggested by the title, Coming Home（归来）tells a story about Lu Yanshi, a prisoner in the era of Cultural Revolution, who returns home to his family. In the movie, Lu returns home twice to meet his family. The first is when he tries to go home when he is still an inmate by escaping prison. The second is when he is officially released after the Cultural Revolution is over. None of his coming home brings him happiness. In his first return, Lu cannot find his wife, and his daughter refuses to meet him. After he is released and truly free to meet his family, Lu still cannot bring back the happiness he used to have. In his article that reviews the film Guilai, Peter Sobczynski (2015) discussed the characters of the roles in the film. In his opinion, this film highlights the emotion of the three main characters in every scene. Gong Li plays an important role as she has to be a person who suffers memory loss. Chen also plays a significant role in which he has to help his wife recover from her illness. Zhang Huiwen that begins as an ambitious child turns into a devoted daughter to bring her parents together (Sobczynski, 2015). Mila Rosalina Debbybriela also discussed the film Guilai in her journal article titled “Number Five（五Wu） in the Film Coming Home（归来Guilai）: A Semiotic Study” in 2015. Using semiotic approach, Mila Rosalina Debbyriela aims to discuss the symbol of number 5 which appears in the scenes of Coming Home as a portrayal of a family victim in the Cultural Revolution. In short, Peter Sobczynski emphasizes his study on the emotional characterization of the characters, and Mila Rosalina discusses the symbol number five that appears in the movie through semiotic approach. Different from the two analysis mentioned above, this present study discusses the destruction of family institution by looking at the film’s time and location setting, character and characterization, and plot of Lu Yanshi coming home. We examined the movie using three ways, by discussing the setting of the story, by revealing the characters and the characterizations in the film, and by revealing how the film Guilai is told. Using these three means, it is hoped that the core story of the film can be revealed and the reasons of Lu family suffering can be understood. The steps applied in this study is by watching the film Guilai many times, understanding the story as it is presented in the movie, then finding other sources related to the story of the film, and providing interpretations of the necessary parts to strengthen the analysis. By carefully scrutinizing the film using intrinsic approach, it is hoped that the result of the study will not only complement the existing study but also give new meanings to the film Coming Home. According to Nurgiyantoro (2015: 314 and 318), settings are differentiated into three main elements: time, place, and socio-culture. This study only focuses on two elements, time and place. Time settings refer to the time when the events in a fiction work happened. The “when” is connected to the factual time or the time that relates to historical events. The reader’s knowledge and perception of the historical time are then used to enter the story. The place setting refers to the place where the events in a literary work happened. Aminuddin (2000) suggested several ways to understand the characterization of a character. It is through (1) the description of the narrator about the characteristics of the character, (2) the portrayal given by the author through the character’s life environments or the way the character dresses, (3) showing how the character behaves, (4) paying attention to how the character 840 International Review of Humanities Studies www.irhs.ui.ac.id, e-ISSN: 2477-6866, p-ISSN: 2527-9416 Vol.4, No.2, October 2019 (Special Issue), pp. 839-856 talks about her/ himself, (5) understanding the character’s way of thinking, (6) seeing how other characters talk about the character, (7) seeing how other characters react to the character, and (8) seeing how the character reacts to other character. 1. Film Setting Before discussing the character, characteristics, and the plot of the film, the study will first discuss the setting in the film Guilai. This needs to be done because the time setting appears quite early in the film, in minute 29:00, when the sentence “ Three Years Later, the Cultural Revolution Ends” as the marker of story transition. 1.1.Time Setting: Cultural Revolution Era Using the sentence “Three Years Later, the Cultural Revolution Ends”, the audience is directed to understand that the story in the film Guilai is linked to the Cultural Revolution which occurred for ten years in China (1966-1976). Picture 1. Time setting that reads “三年后，“文化大革命”结束” (Three years later, the Cultural Revolution ends) in minute 29:00 (Source: the film Guilai) The Great Proletarian Cultural Revolution or commonly known as Cultural Revolution was announced in 16 August 1966 by Mao Zedong. At the beginning of Cultural Revolution, Mao closed many schools and universities, and mobilized the youth to form Red Guards. They criticized and attacked the old, Chinese intellectuals and party members who still held the traditional and bourgeois values. Anything that was not in line with Mao’s ideology were destroyed. Violence was widespread all over China causing hundred thousand people to die. The Cultural Revolution ended in 1976 (Bendini, 2016).. 841 International Review of Humanities Studies www.irhs.ui.ac.id, e-ISSN: 2477-6866, p-ISSN: 2527-9416 Vol.4, No.2, October 2019 (Special Issue), pp. 839-856 1.2 Place Setting: Lu Yanshi Family House The discussion on place setting is important to help understand that the character has a fairly good position in the society. Lu Yanshi’s house is well-organized and spacious enough to place a piano and to be a place for Lu’s daughter, Dandan, to practice ballet. This family also has their own kitchen and bathroom inside the house. Picture 2: Picture 3: Kitchen in Lu Yanshi’s house in The piano inside Lu Yanshi’s house minute 20:30 in minute 33:13 (Source: the film Guilai) (Source: the film Guilai) Picture 4: Picture 5.: The living room of Lu Yanshi’s Dandan is dancing in the living room house in minute 78:12 in minute 90:06 (Source: the film Guilai) (Source: the film Guilai) From screen shots above, even though Lu’s character has not been revealed, the house signifies that the main character of the film is not an ordinary people and has a good position in the society. 2. Characters and Characterization in the Film Guilai In the film Guilai there are three main characters. The story of the film develops through 842 International Review of Humanities Studies www.irhs.ui.ac.id, e-ISSN: 2477-6866, p-ISSN: 2527-9416 Vol.4, No.2, October 2019 (Special Issue), pp.