Man chang de gao bai

I expected of East Asian cinema, about romances, you can expect an introvert love story experience, exploring loneliness, deep desires and turbid relationship, with it's really slow paced storytelling, (what i think it's the normal in Asian cinema) but in the end the movie an well worth watching with an absolute great purpose with everything gets connected .

SPOILER The greatness of the movie is in the meanings, besides what it's looks like, it's not about the brothers relationship (that actually have an great chemistry and a beautiful story), but about A Chuan faith, who was tired of her father, who was emotionally distant from her and get another family what make her leaves Beijing to live in London to became an singer and then goes Yanagawa in Japan, who is a town with her name meaning in Japanese, wich both mean "the river", the siblings are an conductor for that story, as Li Dong has cancer and is about to die, after that he and his brother discovered that A Chang, who they doesn't have seen her in 20 years, and it's now living and singing in japan, and her was once both love interest in they childhood, and made this trip just to see her and take the proof of who was the one she likes, in that with they vision, who is getting introduced to that new world, we star to met a bunch of characters, her friend who lived with her in London and now lives in Japan, an girl who is her fan and also daughter of her friend, and an old lady who owns an restaurant translated to "the end of the river".

And there is were everything get connected, as they all are living by an running river, like her name, the girl meaning her past since she takes paths exactly like her, since she is as the same age as her when she leaves Beijing with the same issue of an emotional distant father, her as the present living in doubt between her choices in the paste and her feelings now days, and the old lady meaning her future who was once an singer, but ended up lone and opening an restaurant (meaning the end by "the end of the river"), in the end we see all the consequences, the father desperate about his daughter, she blaming herself for that and the old lady advising her that is nothing wrong in that choices and everything we just be were it need to be.

Really liked this one. This and The Shadowless Tower are Zhang Lu's best for me. I haven't seen Fukuoka and I don't know if I should. At least it's short and it's got Park So-dam in it so maybe one day. Gyeongju and Ode to the Goose I liked partially, but the whole didn't work for me.

But Yanagawa really made me like most of these characters and feel for them, except for Chun who is quite reprehensible as a husband and father, and even brother. Of course my heart was breaking for Dong knowing what happens in the very first scene of the movie and some of the things said between him and his brother are so sad in light of that, knowing what he and only he knows. This topic is something that upsets me deeply and frankly I hope I never have to live with that, knowing that. I wouldn't handle it well. Dong clearly makes plans to settle things his own way. Yanagawa is pretty and dreamy and moody, but maybe the canals and the old houses are the only things to see there. It really looks deserted, just as they advertise it. It'd be nice to visit, but I doubt I'll ever get there unfortunately.

I really liked how the stories of these people are slowly untangled and how secrets are revealed and it makes all these countless short scenes meaningful. They tell something about the characters. Small or big, but together they all draw a fuller picture. Dong seems like a cool guy and I fully agree with the bar lady. Chun is the popular one and I can see why, but Dong is the one they care about. Sadly in love it doesn't work like that. But I liked that Liu Chuan saw him fully in the end.

One thing that bothered me - how are these three the same age? Ni Ni looks so much younger than them.

PS: Hong Sang-soo could learn from this.