First Hit: This is a somewhat interesting and rather long film that follows a young woman and her search for intense love. It is well shot and the use of a hand held camera was well executed.
Hao Lei plays Yu Hong as a young woman working away in her father’s small retail store in a town a long way from Beijing. She has a boyfriend who is excited for her when she receives a letter stating her acceptance to Beijing University.
At first she plays the quiet one, the almost faceless person, in her dorm room. She meets a more outgoing girl who is curious about this smoldering newcomer. They form a friendship and Yu is introduced to a Zhou Wei (Xiaodong Guo) and immediately she falls deeply in love with him. He completes her at all levels.
From this point on the film is about their relationship and how they split up, re-meet, split up, re-meet and slit-up. Surrounding this relationship is the supposed societal and student unrest.
There are actual shots of the Tiananmen Square uprising mixed into this film; however I couldn’t really connect that the students in the film were engaged enough to be part of the march in the square. In other words there was virtually nothing in the film telling me that these students were the students that Marched in the square that day. It rang false.
After this event, the couple go their separate ways. The film follows them both but the thread between them, their lives, and the film, was mostly lost.
Written and Directed by Lou Ye, there were aspects of this film that were very well shot and presented and this he needs to be commended. The dark almost dank hallways of the student housing, the feeling of lots of people living in small spaces, and the ever present smog making most all outside shots fill up with the dreariness of today’s cities in China were dead on. However, in most all conversations, the dialog lacked substance. The best dialogue came from when Yu Hong spoke her thoughts and diary writings.
Overall: I was both interested and bored with this film. There appears to be more hype to this film than substance. It is a OK film and it’s long and felt long.