Zhou Yu de huo che

In comparison to most other Chinese movies, the title of this movie has very significant symbolic meaning, symbolizing the point of no return. It also has an poetic meaning, which neatly related to the plot of the movie which include a poet. This is one of most obvious achievement of this movie, which also makes it a little different from the rest of Chinese movies.

The social critic aspect of the movie is rather something ordinary, a theme that is common in most social critic films in contemporary China, and it is none other than the criticism of hedonism, materialism, and other common stuff you would find in Chinese movies about modern China.

This film tells the story of a woman who is in love with a poet far away, while a vet near her attempts to win her heart.

"Zhou Yu's Train" is not told in a linear manner, and hence it's super confusing. All the time, I thought there were only three main characters, the woman, the poet and the vet. The story jump back and forth, and it's hard to piece together the fragments to make a coherent story. This is not helped by the slow pace, numerous scenes of train and railway tracks, dragging the film longer than it needs to be. The most confusing thing is the ending, I didn't understand it at all, until I read the message board that says there is in fact a fourth character, also played by Gong Li! The film lost me and my interest completely, and there is no turning back. It would help to understand the story if I watched it again, but I'm not watching it again for sure.

This motion picture defines the word "artsy". A film about a young and pretty porcelain painter who falls in love with a shy and melancholic poet (played by Sun Honleig), it aims to be a poetic work, but what you get is lots of ralenti shots to the point of saturation, piano and strings music, pretty landscapes enshrouded in fog, trains entering and exiting tunnels and Gong Li... In the past Miss Gong inspired true poetic films, as those directed by Zhang Yimou, but this movie is not one. Tony Leung plays another suitor, a sympathetic veterinarian with a welcome sense of humor, too materialistic to understand romantic love and literary inspiration, and wise to keep a distance, but not enough to balance this melodrama, with too much emphasis on sad love. I love trains, but this trip is on the boring side.

ZHOU YU'S TRAIN is the type of film that may require repeat viewing in order for the casual viewer to take in all the thia story has to offer: if you blink -- much like the effect of the quickly passing scenery out the window of any train -- you might miss a plot line, a character moment, or a perspective that would better be explored, as the climax to this evenly and perhaps-too-leisurely-paced romance shows.

Zhou Yu (the lovely Gong Li) plays a young painter who falls in love with a shy poet, Chen Ching (played by Tony Leung Ka-Fai). Twice a week, Zhou Yu rides the train to be with him. On the train, however, a humorous veterinarian (played Sun Honglei) sees, approaches, and flirts with her. While she initially resists his desire, she eventually gives in to an indescribable curiosity which forces all of them to examine their various roles in one another's lives.

While one could hardly argue with the notion that there are parts of TRAIN that appear uneven and, at least, forced, the film still manages to deliver a perspective worth a single view: who does Zhou Yu love and why? Torn between these two men for wildly conflicting reasons, she can't make sense of her dilemma. Instead of running from one of them, she inevitably chooses aspects of both for her affection, but this choice only forces her further and further into confusion.

As a result, TRAIN explores more than one budding relationship, making the film as uneven as it is unpredictable. In fact, one could make the argument that what truly is transpiring here cannot be fully understood and appreciated until the film's final few moments .. but even then the viewer is left with many unanswered questions. Is that the message of the film, that life brings more questions than answers? Or is it merely a comment on how Zhou Yu chose to live her life? Or is it something even more?

Regardless, what is clear is Zhou's desire to seek the answers to questions of the various loves in her life (two men, friendship, art, etc.), and the narrative clearly appears to be a device through which an exploration of the female mind and heart is undertaken. Whether you reach a destination is left entirely up to the viewer.

Of course, the best scenery is Gong Li. She plays even utter confusion with beautiful conviction. If you're a fan of her work, then TRAIN is definitely for you.

Poetic, delicate, subtle. European film with Oriental irisations. Story about love and desire, about power of images and the honey of illusions. Cercles of symbols and chimeric gestures. Time like far lake and the past like only form of present. And a feminine Adonis between two different worlds.

The character of Li Gong is a magnificent miniature not of a sensitive age or ambiguous feelings but for a way to define the existence. A way to explore each miracle as part of a sacred refuge, a river-trip. The train and the travels to loved friend, the poems and the house like essential sanctuary of a wonderful past, splendid for his ambiguity, the talks with realistic, sarcastic man for who the dreams are only offals of lost age and Zhou Yu- a pretty prey.

For this film, the gestures or words are pieces of intense atmosphere. The search of truth is element of personal religion, the love- delicate shard of beautiful pot. The answers- breath of wind in a spring day. And the time- huge shadow of a way.