Kochankowie roku tygrysa (2005) User Reviews

Unrefined yet poignant...

[willd-6 · 7/10 · 30 December 2006]

I really didn't have a good idea what this film was about before I viewed it. A Polish-directed/written film set in China with basically an entirely Chinese cast? A bit foreign for me (being from the US), to say the least.

Starting out with the main character Wolski escaping from Russian Siberia into China, you watch as he is taken in by a poor Chinese family consisting of Guo, his wife, and their daughter Song. So far, so good.

However, one night Song gets up from the dinner table and takes some food to Wolski. As soon as she sits down on his bed Guo comes in and knocks the food right out of her hand. From this moment on, Song is never the same, and you will see why.

My main complaint of this movie is that it is slow and lacks focus/direction in the early (after the first 9min) to middle parts. It is a bit slow but luckily it picks up in the last third.

One thing this movie does well is subtlety. Maybe this is a trait of foreign films in general? I am not sure because I haven't seen enough. My recommendation is if you're a fan of or interested in foreign films and enjoy short but sincere romances, then give this film a shot.

Otherwise, it might not be for you. I think I got something out of it, and for an otherwise stoic personality like myself, it definitely touched me.

Exotic Polish drama

[mzacha · 4 August 2008]

Poland and China do not have common border and do not cooperate too often. "Kochankowie roku tygrysa" is the first movie I heard of, which has been shot in cooperation between those two countries. The effect is interesting, but not great.

The movie is a story told by an old man, who in modern China dreams about travel to Poland. He speaks with a clerk in embassy in Beijing. He tells him of a young Polish soldier, the fighter for the freedom of Poland, who lived to his village in 1913. The man escaped from a prison in Tsar's Russia and swam through the river to China. Badly hurt, was saved by poor Chinese family. He lived under one roof with a young girl called Song. She had a boy's haircut – just not to tempt him.

The movie is an adventure in a style from the beginning of previous century. We have beautiful nature here and people living in unity with it. We animal hunting in beautiful woods, we have farmers and poor people's problems. We have a story of a love and temptation. Nothing more. And that is not good...