I really wish it was just a little longer.

A thought-provoking short film that follows four young people freshly reunited in their hometown for a reunion with an old professor. In the film's short run time, we get a sense of their perspectives on love, relationships, and economics as they fall back into some of the patterns of their youth. The key sequence is at the dinner, where Jia poetically ruminates (through his camera) on the intersection of modern life with the traditional life. One of the best sequences in any of his films.

Jia Zhangke attends a ten-years-later classmates' reunion in Cry Me a River, a ponderous capsule whose visuals, while favourably enriched by evident expressiveness, leave something to be desired. Yet the romanticism and regret to be had therein derives not from attempts at visual poetry but through Zhangke's gift for pacing and the palpably regretful retrospectives partook in by the strong assembled cast. Cry Me a River finds redemption in their humble talent.