Having heard many good things about this movie, as well as being a fan of Yimou's and being totally infatuated with the gorgeous Zhang Ziyi, i was quite looking forward to this. But the plodding story (or lack of) really hurts this film's credibility.
The story: a son returns to his village after hearing his father (the village's teacher) died. His mother insists on having the father's body carried back to the village as part of a Chinese superstition. The son then has a flashback about how his mother and father met and fell in love, which makes up about 3/4 of the movie. The problem with the flashback is that it moves VERY slowly. Ziyi sees the teacher and immediately has a mad crush on him, and proceeds to basically stalk him (in the nicest possible way). She secretly follows him, and basically watches him from afar for most of the movie. She cooks him dinner, he gives her a hair clip and he goes away to the city. She continues to pine for him, and eventually they are reunited and spend the rest of their life together. If it sounds like I'm glossing over the details and simplifying the plot, its because this is exactly what Yimou does. This 'perfect love'(which is obviously what Yimou was trying to make this relationship) is never given any real detail or depth because the two 'lovers' exchange about 20 words throughout the whole film; most of the film contains shots of Ziyi secretly watching the teacher. Their relationship is flimsy at best and is given no chance to blossum and strengthen, which could have been the heart of the film. Instead we get MANY shots of Ziyi in close up running through lush beautiful landscapes as she pines for this man she doesn't even remotely know. For some reason, Yimou decided to focus on the period before their relationship blossumed into true love, rather than when they are reunited and able to spend their life together. The film really suffers because of this, and the only reason i sat through the whole thing was Ziyi's beauty and the locations which are pretty breathtaking.
The story: a son returns to his village after hearing his father (the village's teacher) died. His mother insists on having the father's body carried back to the village as part of a Chinese superstition. The son then has a flashback about how his mother and father met and fell in love, which makes up about 3/4 of the movie. The problem with the flashback is that it moves VERY slowly. Ziyi sees the teacher and immediately has a mad crush on him, and proceeds to basically stalk him (in the nicest possible way). She secretly follows him, and basically watches him from afar for most of the movie. She cooks him dinner, he gives her a hair clip and he goes away to the city. She continues to pine for him, and eventually they are reunited and spend the rest of their life together. If it sounds like I'm glossing over the details and simplifying the plot, its because this is exactly what Yimou does. This 'perfect love'(which is obviously what Yimou was trying to make this relationship) is never given any real detail or depth because the two 'lovers' exchange about 20 words throughout the whole film; most of the film contains shots of Ziyi secretly watching the teacher. Their relationship is flimsy at best and is given no chance to blossum and strengthen, which could have been the heart of the film. Instead we get MANY shots of Ziyi in close up running through lush beautiful landscapes as she pines for this man she doesn't even remotely know. For some reason, Yimou decided to focus on the period before their relationship blossumed into true love, rather than when they are reunited and able to spend their life together. The film really suffers because of this, and the only reason i sat through the whole thing was Ziyi's beauty and the locations which are pretty breathtaking.