Nuan

I agree with Ron Chow. This movie turned up one evening on national TV and proved to be well worth my time. And yes! The bike ride down the mountain and the duck-herd scenes!

Unlike Ron, I am not a native Chinese speaker and relied on the English subtitles, which were well-written although suffer from the usual problem with subtitles, that much of what is said goes past one, untranslated, and one only gets a summary of the dialog. However, with actors like these, one could nonetheless enjoy this story. In that sense the subtitling was as good as that in Crouching Tiger, although this is not to say that the two films are in any other way comparable.

Li Jia (aka Jia Li (II) on IMDb) is fantastic and deserves to be better known in the west, but I haven't been able to find anything about her anywhere. The casting of Teruyuki Kagawa, a Japanese actor, in the role of the deaf-mute was a stroke of genius.

Definitely worth a watch.

Among the many genres of Chinese film, the rural drama is one that stands out. There are those of Zhang Yimou and Chen Kaige, as well as many others such as 'Postman in the Mountains. I certainly prefer them to those that pick at the ugly scab of the Cultural Revolution. While historically important, the events of the Cultural Revolution, much like the horrors of war, are hard to relate to for those who did not live through it. Which is not to deny the importance of such films, but the simple humanity of films such as the aforementioned rural dramas, and this film 'Nuan', weaves a spell that is hard to shake off.

This film takes place in and around a modest, but well-watered village in a picturesque part of Jiangxi (I think). It is wonderfully green, and notwithstanding the hardships of rural life, looks quite idyllic. The narrator, Jinghe, has returned after about ten years away, and is actually leaving for the city again when he come across Nuan, the woman of the title. She suffers from a limp, and still nurses a grievance against Jinghe, one that is explained as the film progresses. Jinghe returns to the village with her, hoping perhaps to right the wrongs of the past, and the viewer is taken along too, through numerous reminiscences and lengthy flashbacks. Jinghe also meets Nuan's daughter, and her husband, the mute and volatile A Ba, of whom Nuan had actually been afraid when younger.

All four of the main characters are excellently portrayed by the actors, though the Japanese actor (Terujuki Kagawa) playing A Ba stood out in particular. The camera-work was well done, exploiting the interesting aspects of interiors and exteriors. There was so much to look at in some shots, that I'm glad they were held for long enough to enjoy more fully. On top of this, the music was really icing on the cake, particularly the bamboo flute, which was so evocative of time and place, of tranquil contemplation and bittersweet nostalgia.

I heartily recommend this movie to anyone already interested in Chinese film, or even as an ideal introduction for those new to Chinese film due to its attractiveness and accessibility. It is a worthy addition to the genre of the rural drama, is well written, well acted and beautifully photographed.

While the director and actors may be known in China, they are totally unknown to me. So it is with an open mind that I invested my evening hours to watch this 2003 film on my TV screen.

I liked it very much. The film was shot mostly in the rural parts of the Jiangxi province in China. The story was about first love, a promise broken, and the subsequent regret that followed. The pace was unhurried, acting decent, and the setting beautiful to look at. The story was told through a young man who left the village to go to university and then wound up working and living in Beijing. Ten years has passed before he returned to the village for a quick visit. There, by chance, he ran into the woman he once loved deeply as a teenage.

As I write these notes I still recall scenes of the fast bike ride down the country path, the walk over the foot bridge, and the herding of ducks through the marshes. According to the director, this film was not expected to be a commercial success in China. I find this to be a shame. It is one of the best love stories I have ever watched on a screen.

¡°Nuan¡± is a stunningly attractive film, elegantly visualized and intriguingly scripted. Compared with other movies ever made in more than 50 years since the People¡¯s Republic of China established, it is incontrovertibly ranked in top 10 or 20. Jianqi Huo, the director, isn¡¯t very well known, but those who like him often praise him as if he were Christ rose on Earth for the second time. Huo has experienced several commercial failures but it seemed that he did not care about it.

¡°Nuan¡± is a tragedy based on the countryside life in modern china. By telling a story that a pretty rural girl struggled to love and persist but finally all her hopes inevitably crashed down, Huo explored not only the conflicts between individuals, but also issues of class which was caused by China¡¯s ¡°Hukou¡± policy.

I would like to recommend this movie to people who do not live in China, because on one hand you may know something true happening in China¡¯s country which is totally different from that in cities in the recent years, on the other hand, this movie is a nice little piece of work. Colors, sounds, camera movements, actor's play, everything is delicate and beautiful.

Movie "Nuan" attracted my attention not because it received the Grand Prix of Tokyo International Film Festival of 2004, or because its director, Mr. Hao Jianqi's poetic style of movie making and stunning ability of story telling; I brought the DVD due to a very simple reason, its leading actor, Guo Xiaodong who played the role of Lin Jinhe. I have watched several of Guo Xiaodong's movies and TV dramas, of which "Colonel's Daughter" is the one that touched my soul and heart, and brought Guo to the front view of my star watching. I was hoping "Nuan" would bring me a new appreciation of his acting skill while unwrapping the DVD, and I was fully intoxicated by the beauty of this movie.

The movie started with Jinhe, the narrator, after a brief visit, leaving the small village where he spent his childhood, and had not returned for ten years. At the end of the two-way bamboo bridge outside of the village, Jinhe ran into Nuan, the girl whom he loved when he was a teenager, and promised to come back to marry when he was leaving for a college in a big city. Accompanied by Jinhe's soul searching narration, the movie interlocks the happy and dreamy teenage years of Nuan and Jinhe with Nuan's mundane life in her current home, and leads us through a visual and emotional trip of "warm" love, "cold" waiting, cruel dream-breaking, and alleviating forgiveness. Guo Xiaodong vividly portrayed Jinhe as an honest and timid teenage country boy although he was actually 10 years older than the role he played. As a native Chinese speaker, I had the privilege to experience and enjoy the narration that did not carry too much change of tunes and volume, but sounded like a gentle creek of emotion flowing out of Jinhe's heart. Guo Xiaodong's narration comes from his deep understanding and identifying with Jinhe's life and dilemma for he himself was once a happy, honest and dreamy country boy. Director Huo Jianqi generously extended the display of the bluish mountains, tranquilizing creeks, waiving reeds, swimming ducks, all of which allow the audience to appreciate the idyllic rural life, reflect their own bittersweet life experiences evoked by the soothing play of bamboo flute; and to certain extends, search their soul for kind and forgiveness.

I thoroughly enjoyed this movie, and I was totally mesmerized by Guo Xiaodong's brilliant performance. I wholeheartedly recommend it to these who want to see the true character and virtue of Chinese man displayed by both the role and in person of Mr. Guo Xiaodong. Guo Xiaodong is going to be the next big hit in both Chinese and international film industry, and I open my arm to welcome the coming of the "Phoenix from East".

"Nuan" is the first movie Guo Xiaodong made that achieved international reorganization. His later works include "Peach Blossom" (2003), "Summer Palace" (2004), "The Warlords" (2007), "The Power and Beauty' (2007), "Missing" (2007). His TV dramas include "The Era of New Marriage" (2006), "Colonel's Daughter"(2005).