ZHOU YU'S TRAIN
Directed by: Sun Zhou.
Produced by: Huang Jianxin, Sun Zhou & William Kong.
Written by: Sun Zhou, Bei Cun & Zhang Mei.
Director of Photography: Wang Yu.
Edited by: William Chang.
Music by: Shigeru Umebayashi.
Released by: Sony Pictures Classics.
Language: Mandarin with English subtitles.
Country of Origin: China/Hong Kong. 96 min. Rated: PG-13.
With: Gong Li, Tony Leung Ka Fai & Honglei Sun.

Zhou Yu (Gong Li), a painter in a ceramics factory, meets struggling poet Chen Ching on a chance encounter. Beautiful but erratic, Zhou doesn't hesitate to take the long train ride twice a week to see her Chen, who finds artistic inspiration in their passionate relationship. He gives her love poems, and she brings him hand-painted pottery. On one of many train rides, a vase painted by Zhou attracts the attention of a doctor, Zhang, who confidently pursues Zhou despite her steadfast rejections. Through repeated train encounters, Zhang and Zhou develop a friendship that eventually leads to romance. Zhou willingly boards a different train for this affair, traveling between her two lovers.

If this film feels a lot like Wong Kar-wai's In The Mood For Love, it's because of the evocative grand overtures by Umebayashi, who also scored Wong's film. Director Sun Zhou even goes so far as to duplicate a signature image of Wong's - a thin curling trail of smoke, filmed in slow motion. Like the histrionic love poem about an overflowing river Chen writes for Zhou - and unlike the elegant resonance of In The Mood For Love - Zhou Yu's Train tries too hard for metaphor, using montages of train imagery and a repeated shot of papers slowly floating into a river. Although skillfully photographed, many of the scenes lack a cohesive objective, relying instead on standalone visuals. They contrast heavily with other scenes shot with a shaky handheld camera. These disjointed shots parallel the film's jumping timeline, which makes sense by the film’s end when many of the haphazard fragments finally come together. But even at an hour and a half, the film feels much longer, and the slight revelatory ending comes a little too late. Kim Reyes, contributing editor
June 25, 2004