Sure, I can appreciate a drama about a single mom's struggle to support, feed and take care of her partially deaf child. But when the movie turns out to be that she faces hardship at virtually every aspect of the movie, then it becomes a bit too much - too forced and too scripted in order to tap into the sympathy of the audience.
It was a shame that director Zhou Sun opted to go that way with this movie, because "Breaking the Silence" (aka "Piao liang ma ma") really had all the right ingredients to be a rather beautiful and outstanding movie. But it was just executed in a way too forced manner, and it was so blatantly obvious that the director wanted to press every issue to make the audience sympathize for the struggling mother.
The movie is not all bad though, mind you. Just look past the scripted nature of the movie, and there are some really nice aspects to the "Breaking the Silence". The story and the concept is very nice, and it is a moving story that will sink right into the heart. And the story is nicely paced and does take the audience along through a somewhat turbulent ride throughout the lives of Sun Liying and Zheng Da.
What makes "Breaking the Silence" stand out is the performances put on by the two lead talents, that being Li Gong (playing Sun Liying) and Xin Gao (playing Zheng Da). They really carried the movie so nicely, and they had a lot of weight to pull as everything was essentially riding on how well they performed. They both stepped up and proved their worth.
While "Breaking the Silence" is a beautiful movie, it is smothered by the overzealous attempts of director Zhou Sun. This was a shame, because it hindered the movie from achieving the greatness that it had potential for.
I am rating "Breaking the Silence" six out of ten stars. It is worth watching if you enjoy Chinese cinema.