Child prodigies would not exist without pushy parents and extraordinary teachers, but the talented children rarely lead normal lives as members of a family, since destiny calls them to share their talents with the world. In The Luzhin Defense (2001), a Russian chess prodigy comes to a tragic end. A happier ending is presented in Together (He ni zai yi qi), directed by Political Film Society awardwinner Chen Kaige, who portrays the deep emotional stresses of Xiaochun (played by Tang Yun), a thirteen-year-old violin prodigy, as well as those of his father Liu Cheng (played by Liu Peiqi), a chef in a provincial Chinese city. When the film begins, Liu Cheng is determined to bring fame and fortune to his son, who has won yearly awards in the province, so they travel from the countryside to Beijing in order to find a teacher who can cultivate Xiaochun’s abilities. Lacking funds and connections, they cannot buy their way to admission to a prestigious music academy, as is common. Professor Yu Shifeng (played by the director himself), a distinguished teacher, initially spurns them, so they instead prevail upon Professor Jiang (played by Wang Zhwen), who agrees to accept modest payment because Xiaochun is obviously on the road to becoming a consummate violinist; he plays from the heart, a predictor of greatness. For lodging, they find a one-room apartment, possibly an abandoned garage, near a more fashionable building that happens to have a vain and temperamental beauty, Lili (played by the director’s spouse, Chen Hong), on an upper floor. Xiaochun and Lili become acquainted, the latter appearing to seek her company as a big sister or surrogate mother, a role that she increasingly enjoys. In time, Jiang confesses that he lacks the connections to propel Xiaochun to stardom as a concert violinist, so Xiaochun pawns his violin, using the money to buy a fashionable coat for Lili, thus repaying her for her kindness. Meanwhile, his father entreats Professor Yu, who has better connections, to be his new teacher. After an emotional crisis about whether Xiaochun really wants to continue as a violin prodigy, Yu invites Xiaochun to move into his apartment, where he is also sponsoring a female child prodigy, Lin Yu (played by Qing Zhang). Since Liu Cheng believes that he has no further role as Xiaochun’s parent, he declares that he will be returning to the province, whereupon his son feels rejected. On the day of the competition, after Professor Yu tells Xiaochun that he, not his female rival, will play with the symphony that night, secrets begin to emerge. One is that Liu Cheng picked up Xiaochun in a train station as an abandoned baby, along with a violin placed next to him. Liu Cheng, thus, is not Xiaochun’s birthfather. A second secret is that Professor Yu bought Xiaochun’s violin at the pawnshop, intending to return the instrument to him if he failed to progress toward the goal of fame and fortune. Xiaochun then has a choice, as his father is allowing him the freedom to become his own person at an early age. Either he will perform at the concert or he will return the extraordinary love of his adoptive father by joining him before he boards a train for the province. The title of the film is the best clue about the ending of the deeply touching film that holds traditional family relationships in higher esteem than material success. For those who enjoy concert violin music, Together provides an ecstasy of beautiful music, played by Chuangyun Li. MH