Zhou Yu's Train

Rating:
Summary: Zhou Yu's Train Wreck
Review: If you liked Gong Li's previous movies you'll hate this one. It is a tedious story of constantly oscillating emotions in a pair of romances that are hard to care about. Gong Li's title character does little but ponder her life and kiss a few men. The photography is beautiful. If someone gives you this movie for Christmas, go ahead and watch it, but turn off the sound and subtitles.

Rating:
Summary: "Your destiny is in your own hands."
Review: The story in "Zhou Yu's Train" is quite simple--a young woman, Zhou Yu (Gong Li) who paints porcelain for a living meets and falls in love with a poet, Chen Ching (Tony Leung). He lives in a remote part of the country so she insists on traveling via the train to see him twice a week. On one of her journeys, she meets a veterinarian, Zhang, who pursues her.

The plot is made far more complicated by the fact that the film skips back and forth in time, and that a fourth character--a former lover of Chen Ching's is also played by Gong Li (with short hair). I thought this fourth character was just an older Zhou Yu looking back on her life. Gong Li playing both roles--with no explanation--was extremely confusing.

It takes patience and a commitment on the part of the viewer to reach the film's conclusion, and just at that moment, it all begins to make sense (if you haven't already given up). And the unnecessary complications are quite unfortunate, for "Zhou Yu's Train" really is a stunningly beautiful film. It is only at the film's conclusion that one wonders exactly why Zhou Yu travels on the train--even when she no longer has a reason to do so. There are hints from her memories that train travel means far more to her than just going from point A to point B, and the train journey is more important than the destination. Zhou Yu's hopeless love and obsession for Chen Ching is echoed by Zhang's hopeless love for Zhou Yu. Love isn't inherently sensible, and some lovers are destined to only be second best--displacedhuman

Rating:
Summary: A beautiful gem
Review: The story in Zhou Yu's Train is one about love and freedom. The first topic was taboo in China until only recently (the fact that this film has no female nudity attests to the strict sensorship, both cultural and political, in that country) and the second still forbidden with austere legal enforcement.

The film is a little confusing, especially in the first 30 minutes, due to the use of nonlinearity. It almost seems convoluted, but once you brave on, you'll figure out the story. I'll give a quick rundown of the plot.

Zhou Yu, played by the talented actress Gong Li, is a locally successful porcelain painter. One day, she meets a struggling shy poet called Chen Ching (Tony "The Lover" Leung) and they soon start seeing each other. Zhou is also pursued by a playboy-like veterinarian named Zhang Qiang, whom she meets twice on the train ride to her friend's town: the first time when Zhou and Zhang board the train together and he breaks one of her porcelain bowls, the second time they are introduced to each other by their common friend, the train conductor.

Now the story becomes easy to follow: Zhou wants Chen to commit, but Chen's self-doubt and struggling career propel him to escape from Zhou by going to Tibet. Zhou tries to find a second love in Zhang but simply cannot stop loving Chen. She goes off to look for Chen... well, I can't give the ending away!

The beginning is confusing also because Gong is cast in two roles: that of Zhou (longer, curly hair), and a secondary character called Xiu (short hair), who appears occasionally until the end, when her role becomes clear. In case you still don't get it, here's how it works (SPOILER ALERT!): Xiu is Chen's new girlfriend after Zhou's death in the bus accident. She (Xiu) meets Chen after he has published his collection of poems (this happens at the start of the film). And Xiu is the female narrator of the story. She tells Chen "don't try to find Zhou Yu in me," but obviously, she does want to play the role of Zhou Yu to Chen and make him love her.

There's an innate beautiful quality to the film, thanks to the visually stunning cinematography. (BTW, my friend Ann tells me the hilly city in the film is actually Chongqing, in southwestern China.) Whether it's wideangle landscape, a dreamy indoor scene with soft sunlight coming through bamboo blinds, or sharp-focus close-ups of Gong's beautiful face or her character's beautiful porcelain, each shot in the film is well-composed, well-lit, and well-exposed, almost to perfection. Together with a propelling original music soundtrack, Zhou Yu's Train is a worthy film watching experience. If you are a fan of Gong's, you won't be disappointed; she proves her talent and, almost 40, her sensuality.

Rating:
Summary: Good acting but weak confusing story; don't waste your time.
Review: This Chinese film has beautiful cinematography. The countryside comes alive with beauty. It is also groundbreaking for a Chinese film because there are romantic scenes of hugging and kissing, all shot in soft focus and with great feeling. The actress, Gong Li, who stars in the film, is beautiful. And the acting is uniformly good.

The story is confusing however. It's about a woman who takes a long train ride twice each week to see her poet lover. She meets another man on the train who is a veterinarian. The audience soon realizes that he would be a better match for her but she doesn't think so and continues with her improbable romance with the poet who lives in a library and is about to move to Tibet. The whole setting was silly as each of the main characters seemed to be solitary creatures without any family. It was also never clear how she got the time off from her job as a porcelain artist to take the long trip each week. Or why the veterinarian was on the train either. There are a lot of shots of the train and I guess this was supposed to be symbolic. But the story was really terribly weak.

I was bored throughout and I can't understand why I sat through the whole film. I guess I was just waiting for something interesting to happen. It didn't. And the story ended with even more confusion. Therefore, I cannot recommend it in any way. Don't waste your time.


Rating:
Summary: Have you ever tried to watch grass grow ...
Review: Yes it may be beautifull but oh my goodness the anxiety of waiting for SOMETHING ... I mean actually ANYTHING to happen will drive you nuts. This movie is a Chinese made classic that comes as close to watching grass grow .....


Yes, the Chinese cienematography/scenery is good, but so what, the main character is also very beautifull, Gong Li, and an astonishing actress, but so what, the character she plays, Zhou Yu, as the obsessed beautifull young girl taking weekly train trips alone to visit her whimpy poet lover, Chen Ching, makes me mad rather than enjoy a 'sweet' love story .... I was always waiting to see the young slap him in the face and tell him to snap out of it .....


What a sick one sided love story ..... and if that isn't bad enough ...... then meets a young virile and somewhat more interesting young vet ... did something happen ... nope boredom wins again ....

I will tell you what the story is about since it took me some time to figure it out like a chinese puzzle.... Gong Li plays two characters in the film, the obsessed heroine Zhou and also a short haired version of a hip narrator, Xiu who tells the story using flashbacks.... Xiu for some reason finds Chen's poems and wants to meet him to tell him that she likes him BUT not to try to find Zhou, his now deceased love in her .... Gimme a break ....

Finally, please just because the Chinese government lets the director make a movie should not alone make it great or interesting ... this one is a dog dog dog ... not very yummie at all ...

Rating:
Summary: Emotional Journeys of the Heart on a very special Train
Review: ZHOU YU'S TRAIN is another beautiful film from China, refreshingly romantic and intimate film giving us a break from the constant onslaught of the Chinese martial arts films that have so deeply influenced the movie market around the world. As directed by Zhou Sun this low-key tale concerns changes in the lives of three rather simple citizens of Northern China. The simplicity is gratifyingly successful.

Zhou Yu (played with exquisite subtlety by the magnificent Gong Li) is a working girl who is carrying on the family tradition of painting porcelain for exporters. Unassuming, she meets Chen Ching (Tony Leung) who is a poet afraid of his talent and self-deprecating to a fault. Zhou Yu hears the beauty in his work and falls in love with both the poetry and the poet. Chen Ching lives out in the country and Zhou Yu must take a train to enjoy her very frequent trysts.

Fate intervenes and on one of these train trips she encounters Zhang Qiang (Hanglei Sun), and affable handsome young Veterinarian who at first pursues her for her 'art' and is rebuffed by Zhou Yu, but the mustual initial physical attraction is undeniable. In time Zhou Yu seeks out the rather secretive Zhang Qiang in his country setting and the two begin a lusty affair. Zhou Yu is torn between the poet and the doctor. How the ultimate love triangle is resolved speaks to the age old questions of passion, art vs. science, and equivocation of the entangled heart.

The scenery of China is beautifully captured and the camera says much about the current social levels of living in China. The music is strangely completely Western when a bit of the old China music seems to be more appropriate to such an intimate tale.

But it is the luminous, multifaceted performances by Gong Li especially and Tony Leung and Hanglei Sun that bring a rich credibility to this small tale. Highly recommended. Grad Harp December 2004

Rating:
Summary: Take the Train
Review: ZHOU YU'S TRAIN is the type of film that may -- just may -- require repeat viewing in order 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 something better explored, as the ending of this evenly-paced romance shows.

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: Zhou Yu falls in love with a poet she must take the train to see, but, aboard the train, she finds herself somewhat distracted by a veterinarian who insists -- despites her mild protests -- on pursuing her affections. As a result, TRAIN explores more than one budding relationship and can be confusing on more than one occasion. In fact, one could make the argument that what truly is transpiring here cannot be fully appreciated until the film's final few moments, and, even then, the viewer may be left with many unanswered questions. However, 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 entirely up to the viewr.

Of course, the best scenery is, indeed, Gong Li. If you're a fan of her work, then TRAIN is definitely for you.