Huang jin shi dai

First the good things: Tang Wei is a competent actress, perfectly cast for the role. high production value. good attention to details.

Now for the bad: over 3 hours long! The director is so in love with herself, if she had hired a proper editor, the film would have been a much superior one at 90 min. Deliberately trying to be avant-garde. breaking the mold for the sake of breaking mold. The movie is dotted with interviews of the characters around the author, some experimental technique, which completely breaks the immersion while contributing nothing to the film.

summary: tries to be avant-garde like Duras' films, but lacking.

A film that could be even longer. A masterpiece, made by all those who cares. There are so many things well done. I appreciate it for it shine,for all scenes and street views, for costumes and interiors,for narration,because not insist over horrific scenes. All story only seems to be lighty but it have a hide loaded ,,weight'' meant for more wise people. Who can to not like this film when it start with shine of the sun and ends in the same manner? Among thousands of insignificant movies with fights, battles, horrors, juicy stories, juicy lovers, this film shows shining. Hard to find one flaw....To see more Japanese guys or battle scenes; or more love? To see more political conflicts? No, it's not the case,all story is perfect (for me so ), as it is presented.

I love biographies, especially with strong and talented women, who fight against adversity and overcome themselves every day, Brave Xiao Hong, although it doesn't seem confusing, chronological absence, not very detailed, the narration of the other characters helps, but not enough many unanswered questions, how did she get her living, is implicit, but not explicit... Despite being numerous texts and works that she left a legacy, many of them intimate, I felt that I couldn't capture the essence of the protagonist, I can't understand her, it seemed kind of without purpose, something was missing, feeling...

1) A very bad script with poor arrangement of storyline, scenes, characters appearances, boring narration, extended unnecessary anecdotes.

There seems not enough stuff to fulfill the biopic, so the screenplay writer just keeps blabbering lot of boring segments of the heroine's uninterested enough background back story. The heroine died at 31 years old, so there's not a lot to tell but pumped a lot of yada yada to make it longer. A very poorly scripted screenplay, trying so hard to say something but ended up telling nothing and nothing worthwhile telling.

2) A movie directed by a too old, too traditionally grabbed director, who could only direct the film with her formulaic ways of directing with similar paces and prescription. She has received many awards but never could get rid of her rigid, one way directing habits. A habitual burden pressed down almost all of her films, long, straight line one direction narrative, randomly arranged scenes forced to patch up with flashbacks, jump-around plots, young and old images of the same character. Too traditional way of directing that not catching up the modern way of viewing paces and tempos of the present audiences. A slow-like-hell pace that only nicotine pills might keep the viewers awakening enough to make the ticket fare worth.

3) Very poor editing. The director obviously always sticks to her peer of editors who got the same problems of evolving with time. This film suffered too many back-and-forth patch-up scenes.

4) Too many unnecessary scenes and worthless unimportant anecdotes or incidents, like a randomly patched up quilt with many unrelated pieces of clothes.

5) Pumped into this boring film with lot of historical literary characters, trying to get the audiences connected, but ended up in a nothing but Zzzzzz meh big yawn.

The atmosphere, setting, dialogue is authentic. But it is very slow moving. For the set which goes for realism and authenticity. But it fails as entertainment.