Film Review: Where Is My Home— Wandering Spirits Have Found Their Home

By Chen Nuo, the USA

I don’t remember how long I have not seen such a film. I only remember I saw it on the strong recommendation of my friend. Next, I sobbed, smiled and grew up along with the heroine. Through seeing this over one-hour short film, I seemed to experience a baptism of life. Wenya’s tragic encounters, her tough growth and her final blissful and content outcome are all so touching. The entire film is impressive, either in its story, in the performance of the actors, or in the thoughts it passes on, it has many commendable aspects. Maybe you will be like me if you are going to finish watching it: At first, you smile as you sob; subsequently, you sob as you smile. In a word, whether we sob or smile, we shall be grateful to God’s lovefor us and His salvation to us!

This film is narrated through the eyes of a child. When the heroine Wenya was two years old, her parents divorced, so Wenya lives with her father and stepmother. However, her stepmother can’t tolerate her and often quarrels with her father. Her father has no alternative but to send her to her birth mother’s new family. However, her mother Huizhen, devotes herself to managing her business and has no time to take care of her, so she sends Wenya to the families of the relatives throughout the year. The life of staying with the relatives over the long term makes the little Wenya feel lonely and helpless. She yearns for the warmth of the family, and for being capable of owning a family that belongs to her herself.

Wenya likes drawing from she was very young. In all her drawings are the harmonious scene where all her families live together. One of them makes everyone aching: On one paper are Wenya and her father; the other, her sister and mother. Wenya and her sister put the two pictures together, and then the big paper picture looks like one picture. The two girls say happily, “This way our whole family is together!” Then, Wenya asks her sister in bewilderment, “Other kids only have one home, so why do we have two?” The dialogue between the two little girls is undoubtedly an attack on modern society, allowing us to be saddened as well as worried within. In real life, there are too many children who have the same experience as Wenya.

This film tells us the concept of the true “home”. As long as you use your heart to see it, you’ll find not only Wenya has been searching for the home, but her parents and you, me and many others have.

Wenya’s mother runs a restaurant. She is a typical strong and successful woman. She ever lived with dignity. Not only her business was brisk, but also her basic necessities of life were all classy. In addition, the relatives and friends revolved around her. Wherever she went, she was supported and exalted by others. There is no doubt she is successful. Afterward, because of having much money, her husband began to follow the evil tends, finding a mistress. After knowing the truth, Huizhen was so angry that she suddenly suffered a brain hemorrhage. Had she not been sent to the hospital timely, she would have lost her life. But her husband, devoid of feeling, not only didn’t care about her during her hospitalization, but took the chance to seize the family property. Although Huizhen was saved her bacon through rescue measures, yet she was defeated by the cruel reality. When she came to herself in the hospital and wanted to fetch the cup on the table but failed, she was in desperation. From dignity in the past to the situation at present, she surly met with a big blow. At this time, she was completely defeated by the reality; Wenya’s father is an intellectual, learned and locally famous. Finally, he fell sick from over work and suffered liver cancer. When seeing the father struggle painfully on the sickbed, whatever honor, status or wealth, I think, appears powerless.

Wenya’s parents are in fact a microcosm of lots of people in the current age. They own both fame and gain, but they still don’t have a home. We can see obviously the shadows of ourselves from them. They pursue fame and gain all their life and treat fame and gain as their life. When losing fame and gain, Huizhen loses the pillar of her living on and even has no courage to continue to live. She sits in the wheelchair alone, absent-minded, watching the distance with a hollow expression in her eyes, which makes people desolate. All of a sudden, I feel all men live very sorrowfully: we don’t know how a man shall live and what the true meaning of life is. This way, people go forward difficultly with the evil tends in the world.

The directors explain the definition of home by adopting two clues—clear clue and obscure clue. The clear clue is that Wenya has been looking for home. Through the eyes of Wenya, the directors explain that she aspires to find a warm home; while the obscure clue is that Wenya’s parents are looking for home as well. It’s just that what they are looking for is not the material house but the true dependence of their spirit. They are looking for the harbor of their spirit.

The former part of this film is a sad keynote, simultaneously, is mixed with the positive and optimistic attitude to life—the inflexibility and persistence of Wenya. From her childhood, Wenya has been looking for home. At the beginning of this film is a dream where Wenya runs toward her father, mother and sister. Ordinary as the scene shows, Wenya is unable to get what is in the scene in life. Wenya has no home but longs for one. By contrasting Wenya’s dream in the opening with her real life, the director directly expresses Wenya’s strong desire to have a home. Wenya is a strong-willed girl. She has no home but has been pursuing all the time and never gives up. It is just her persevering pursuit of light that lets her attain happiness in the end. Regardless of whether the little Wenya or the one when she grows up, the two actresses perform fairly well. The character of Wenya is sketched very vividly as if she was your neighborhood girl. This makes you unable to hold yourself back from intending to care for her, and meanwhile you wish her a happy life.

The arrival of the two friends of her mother brings vitality to this gloomy family, especially it is the gospel they bring that gives this family a favorable turn. In bewilderment, and with helplessness and a bit aspiration, Wenya asks Aunt Zheng: Why are people’s lives so painful? It would be so great if things weren’t so hard. The word of Wenya says the voice of hearts of numerous people. God’s words read by Aunt Zheng and Aunt Li give a definite answer. These words of God not only solve the question of Wenya, make Huizhen see through the affairs of the world and have the hope of living on, and make the sister see hope, but also get more people to have a corresponding echo in their hearts, initiate their reflection. Providing everyone lives according to these words of God, the world will not be so dark or vicious, nor will we be so miserable.

The proverb says, “Human life really is full of ups and downs.” It is really true. Happiness has befallen upon Wenya’s family since God’s kingdom gospel came into her home. Especially in the scene where her father passes away, Wenya is so lonely. Confronting her father’s death, she, without home and the accompany of her parents from childhood, seems to be more helpless. Hearing her mother’s words of remorse and guilt, Wenya, instead, becomes strong and thus consoles her mother, saying, “It’s fine. We believe in God now, in the house of God I’ve gotten a taste of the love of the brothers and sisters, and the warmth of God’s family. If it weren’t for believing in God, I really wouldn’t be able to go on. …” We can sense that the words are totally from the bottom of Wenya’s heart. As can be seen from this film, if they don’t believe in or come before God, or get God’s care and protection, they will not have a way out in this world.

What is well worth mentioning is the theme song “Where Is My Home.” This song, sung by the little singer, is not only written well but sounds extremely heart-stirring. It writes in the lyrics: The previous home was in the pictures and in dreams; while the true home Wenya has been searching for is not in the pictures or in dreams; it is not the small suitcase but a place that she dreams of; Wenya finds it at last. This place is a home where our souls can rest, a home full of glory and hope. The home is God’s home. God said, “**For you are strangers and sojourners with me**” (Lev 25:23). As can be seen, every one of us is a solitary individual when we came into this world. It is God’s sovereignty and arrangement that allows us to have our parents, relatives and families, and to start our life. Family gives us a feeling of harmony, happiness, and safety. However, is this home exactly the final destination of us? We know it isn’t. Then where is our true home? God’s home which is conveyed to us in this film is our true home. Having searched for a long time, Wenya eventually finds it. Do you get ready to come home?

## See also

Where is my home

Christian Music Video "Where Is My Home"

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