I Am Not Madame Bovary

7?

Intriguing basis for a black comedy/drama starts out well, with a unique aspect ratio bringing new meaning to a performance in the "round", but its unclear what this very specific stylistic choice is supposed to be saying, which could also apply to the film as a whole - we periodically leave Fan's involving pursuit of justice for a lot of pedantic expositional chatter, which kills the pacing and makes the film a mild ordeal. An interesting effort, but it's unclear what is trying to be achieved.

Beautiful photography/soundtrack; very well directed; Xuelian is a woman driven by love/honor inside a hostile world; it's a movie that talks quite freely about society, not rarely with a severe critical tone; it's surprising, for a western citizen like me, to see such freedom in a chinese movie (from which I would naively expect censorship or a moderate tone toward politically sensitive topics) - in a very politically correct western world, where there's hostility to criticism; beautiful end.

A great performance by Fan Bingbing in this black comedy from China.

Too brilliant to ignore!