still follows the original “death fable” style of telling, it will undoubtedly be depressing and dark, which will have a certain negative impact on the audience. Therefore, it is a feasible strategy for Zhang Yimou’s film adaptation to implement moderate deviation and elimination of suffering in order to weaken the excessive impact of film art communication. According to his personal experiences, Zhang Yimou blended the story into historical background and used a more gentle technique to highlight the helplessness of the character’s fate under the influence of the time. It indirectly expresses the main idea of the novel and weakens the feeling of suffocating, which makes it an excellent adaptation film with “Zhang’s brand”. This work not only tries to restore the original, but also joins another creative subject: the director’s thinking and independent consciousness. The added shadow puppets and innovative changes to the ending, to certain extent, achieved the film because the main thrust of the novel is shown in these innovations. The translation of text into a new film language, although with a strong Zhang’s brand, ensures the original spiritual connotation. The film “To Live” has also become a successful attempt of comprehensive transformation from literature art to film art. Release Limited release in North America The film opened on September 16, 1994 in Canada. By the time the film opened in the United States on November 18, the film had grossed $67,408. On November 18, it expanded to 4 theaters, including Angelika Film Center and Lincoln Plaza in New York City, where it grossed $32,902, towards a weekend gross of $34,647. It went on to gross $2.3 million in the United States and Canada. Chinese censorship This film was banned in China due to a combination of factors. First, it has a critical portrayal of various policies and campaigns of the Communist Government. Such as how the protagonists’ tragedies were caused as a result of the Great Leap Forward and the Cultural Revolution. Second, Zhang Yimou and his sponsors entered the film at the Cannes Film Festival without the usual government’s permission, ruffling the feathers of the party. Lastly, this film suffered from the bad timing of its release, following Farewell My Concubine and The Blue Kite, films which cover almost the same subject matter and historical period. Both of these films had alerted the Chinese government due to their similar critical portrayals of Chinese policies, and