Every so often, the convoluted love story Zhou Yu's Train seems to stop in its tracks and succumb to rapture, gazing on the disarmingly beautiful face of actress Gong Li. A young painter named Zhou Yu (Gong Li, Raise the Red Lantern, Shanghai Triad) falls headlong in love with a painfully shy poet, Chen Ching (Tony Leung Ka-Fai, The Lover). Twice a week she takes the train to his town to be with him, even though he's bewildered by her near-obsessive passion. On the train, a wise-cracking
veterinarian (Sun Honglei) pursues Zhou Yu, but she resists his emotional directness. Zhou Yu's Train bounces back and forth, not only between these two romances but also in time, to confusing effect. But there's something compelling about Zhou Yu's need to love the version of her lover that she holds in her mind, and that sustains the movie through its muddled moments. --Bret Fetzer
This is one of those languid numbers where slow motion -- and there's lots of it -- is meant to signify poetry, and a line like 'I know my lake is artificial, but it's full of water' is supposed to seem lyrical.
We're too busy trying to figure out who's who and what's what, when we should be ruminating on the multiple implications of an intimate story of love's labors lost.
Has a tiny little point -- living solely by one's emotions can be a painful time-waster -- but it makes that point within a needlessly tricky structure and with too much time spent on images that amount to pretty, poetic filler.
lavish and slow moving this reminded me of the films of Wong Kar Wai as a women moves between 2 lovers, I would say the trains,buses and cable cars serve as a metaphor for sex (oh boy Frued), and distance between us and the characters in the movie, well done.
No quotes approved yet for Zhou Yu's Train. Logged in users can submit quotes.
Submit a Quote from 'Zhou Yu's Train'
A quote can be a single line from one character or a memorable dialog between several characters. Please make your quotes accurate. Quotes will be submitted for approval by the RT staff.
Example:
Luke: Alright. I'll give it a try. Yoda: No. Try not. Do or do not. There is no try.
Top Critic
