A straightforward but elegant melodrama, which makes excellent use of voice-over narration, and plays a bit like Brief Encounter via Naruse.

#440

Since I know you've been eagerly awaiting for my opinion on this film, I will spare you the suspense: this is not the greatest Chinese movie of all time. However, it is a strong, realistic, and mature drama that leaves you feeling depressed for each character. The cinematrography is also fairly strong. Unfortunately, it moves quite slowly and the visuals and audio have degraded to the point where some scenes are almost completely silent.

Dry and glacially paced, this often feels like it would have worked better as a short. Still, there's no denying that there's a certain simple beauty to many of the shots and Fei captures his characters' melancholy well.

411

# 620

480