"So long my son" is a Chinese movie from 2019. Its central characters
are 3 couples , especially 1 of them. The film follows their lives
through several decades and the central theme is the impact on their
lives by 2 public policies : predominantly the "one child policy" and ,
less so , the liberalisation of the Chinese economy which allowed
factories which weren't doing well to lay off workers.

The above summary may sound cold and possibly makes the movie seem like
a documentary but the movie is anything but. It is full of drama ,
poignant moments and the occasional touch of humour. The duration is 3
hours 5 minutes (according to IMDB anyway , my DVD is 2 hours 57 minutes
for some reason) but I never felt bored and I have watched it twice.

One complaint I've seen on IMDB is that the movie jumps back and forth
in time as it tells its story. This it does but for me it never caused a
problem because there are always visual cues that a time jump has taken
place and the approximate time period : clothes , technology ,
backgrounds , locations. You need to pay attention and keep track of the
Chinese names (which may be harder for a westerner). As long as you do
this , the jumps in time won't be a problem.

Speaking of IMDB , I feel some regret than none of the reviews there seem
to be written by Chinese , I would be especially interested to know how
they feel about the movie.

There were a few things about the plot which weren't explained well
enough but I didn't really mind.