Zhou Yu's Train is actually pretty French for a Chinese movie: a bittersweet apparition of a flick that's all train platforms, tortured romance, and the fuzzy evanescence of love, the film stars luminous Gong Li as the title character, a painter of ceramics who rides the train for long hours twice a week to visit her poet/librarian boyfriend, Chen Qing (Tony Leung Ka Fai). But the distance between them isn't just physical, and when it becomes apparent that he, timid and sheltered, is overwhelmed by her exuberant passion, she grudgingly opens herself to the persistent attentions of veterinarian Zhang Qiang (Honglei Sun), a man with whom she's more evenly matched, though she isn't willing to admit it. Director Sun Zhou's delicate Asian minimalism nicely combines with the subtleties of a script that time-shifts between Zhou Yu's two relationships to highlight her testy yearning for someone, anyone, to see what she needs, even if she can't see it herself. Her very contemporary confusion and the timeless creamy soulfulness of the (hopeless?) quest for a soul mate make this lovely film feel both modern and classic all at once. Recommended. (M. Johanson)
Zhou Yu's Train
Columbia TriStar, 93 min., in Mandarin w/English subtitles, PG-13, VHS: $50.99, DVD: $29.95, Nov. 23 Volume 19, Issue 5
Zhou Yu's Train
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As of March 2022, Video Librarian has changed from a four-star rating system to a five-star one. This change allows our reviewers to have a wider range of critical viewpoints, as well as to synchronize with Google’s rating structure. This change affects all reviews from March 2022 onwards. All reviews from before this period will still retain their original rating. Future film submissions will be considered our new 1-5 star criteria.
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