I was glad this coming of age story avoided being bogged down in too much drama. In fact, the film nicely balances darker and lighter themes, keeping my attention throughout. I enjoyed how the story being told is influenced by the narrator's flawed or rose-colored memories, made the experience as a whole even more bittersweet. Great camerawork and cinematography too, the title is pretty spot-on.

Jiang's is one of the most impressive transitions from actor to full-blown auteur I've ever seen. His debut is scripted and directed with uncanny maturity. Despite having the Cultural Resolution as its backdrop, the period's repression seeping in and insinuating itself, the film avoids direct political confrontation. It is coming-of-age cinema preoccupied particularly with the demons of adolescent male psychology.

In some ways a fairly typical adolescent coming-of-age story, but with some intriguing twists that hoist it above the average. The narrator throws you some curveballs and suggests a romanticized fantasy. It calls the nature of memory into question. The cinematography is fantastic, it plays a lot with frames-within-a-frame. Like Devils on the Doorstep, this one has a light comic feel but gets astoundingly dark at times. The ending in particular is very atypical for a story of this nature.