Director Zhou Sun's movie from 2002 was somewhat of a rather long ordeal to get through. And I say that with the best of heart, because I was really trying to get submerged into this movie with heart and spirit, but it just never really spoke out to me or captivated me.
"Zhou Yu's Train" (aka "Zhou Yu de huo che") felt like a three hour long movie despite it just running at an average 1 hour and 37 minutes. It was the prolonged storytelling and constantly dragged out scenes where you watch Li Gong either walking in slow motion or sitting around lost in thought that made the movie seem like it was taking forever to get nowhere.
And getting nowhere is exactly what director Zhou Sun managed to do with this movie. It is the story of Zhou Yu (played by Li Gong) a ceramic artist who travels a long distance twice a week by train in order to see her poet boyfriend Chen Qing (played by Tony Ka Fai Leung). During her numerous trips back and forth Zhou Yu befriends Zhang Qiang (played by Honglei Sun) a veterinarian who is enamored with the young artist.
It should be said that the acting in the movie and the three main acting talents really did perform quite well throughout the course of the movie. They were just limited by the directorial hand of Zhou Sun.
Storywise, then "Zhou Yu's Train" doesn't really come up with anything overly new or impressive, nor does it move the Asian cinema by any means. Sure, if you are a fan of Li Gong then there is some enjoyment to be had here, but as fan of the broader Asian cinema then "Zhou Yu's Train" came off as too slow paced and not overly much happening.
"Zhou Yu's Train" pulls a mere four of ten stars from me as the train is departing the station. I wasn't particularly impressed with the movie, and it took the director forever to virtually get nowhere. However, it should be said that the ending of the movie was quite good, although it wasn't much of a surprise twist.
"Zhou Yu's Train" (aka "Zhou Yu de huo che") felt like a three hour long movie despite it just running at an average 1 hour and 37 minutes. It was the prolonged storytelling and constantly dragged out scenes where you watch Li Gong either walking in slow motion or sitting around lost in thought that made the movie seem like it was taking forever to get nowhere.
And getting nowhere is exactly what director Zhou Sun managed to do with this movie. It is the story of Zhou Yu (played by Li Gong) a ceramic artist who travels a long distance twice a week by train in order to see her poet boyfriend Chen Qing (played by Tony Ka Fai Leung). During her numerous trips back and forth Zhou Yu befriends Zhang Qiang (played by Honglei Sun) a veterinarian who is enamored with the young artist.
It should be said that the acting in the movie and the three main acting talents really did perform quite well throughout the course of the movie. They were just limited by the directorial hand of Zhou Sun.
Storywise, then "Zhou Yu's Train" doesn't really come up with anything overly new or impressive, nor does it move the Asian cinema by any means. Sure, if you are a fan of Li Gong then there is some enjoyment to be had here, but as fan of the broader Asian cinema then "Zhou Yu's Train" came off as too slow paced and not overly much happening.
"Zhou Yu's Train" pulls a mere four of ten stars from me as the train is departing the station. I wasn't particularly impressed with the movie, and it took the director forever to virtually get nowhere. However, it should be said that the ending of the movie was quite good, although it wasn't much of a surprise twist.