A Psychologically Abused Woman in Modern China: A Very Slight Spoiler
Without spoiling the film, I'd like to add only slightly to Amazon's "Product Description":
Yanni, the main actress in the movie is living with her extended family who sees her as a waste of a person with little to no future. To everyone's surprise she is accepted to a college in Beijing. She goes, life opens up, the wonders of the world are hers to discover. For those who have visited China's Universities, all the sights are there, particularly those incredibly cramped (with sometimes as many as 7 student) dorm rooms. A wonderful and slightly older delivery man sights her, makes his move and they are in love. Soon Yanni finds out she is pregnant. Not surprisingly, while her lover remains committed, we are slowly taken out of the bright dorm rooms and even the streets of this "New China". The couple move to dwellings underground and we begin to wonder what this delivery man's intentions really are.
This is a powerful feminist movie, where you (man or woman,...
Sad but compelling independent film from China
Zhou Xun is one of the most compelling actresses working today and she grabs you right from the start in this film. She plays a young woman whose parents, intellectuals from the previous generation, have abandoned her for the most part, shuffling her off to live in near poverty with her granny and aunt. Then she's accepted into university, raising her class status momentarily, but falls in love with a truck driver, gets pregnant and her life unravels. There's subtle and deep social commentary embracing this extremely sad tale of family, love, and one woman's struggle to survive in modern China. I was very surprised by the script. It's softly brutal.
Sad but Probably True to Life
I enjoyed this movie if you can use the word enjoyed for something so tragic. It's a portrait of a blatant betrayal of trust. SPOILER ALERT: A girl leaves her dysfunctional home and gets involved with a boy. She becomes pregnant and the boyfriend talks her into having the baby by alluding to the fact that they will have a nice family together and somehow manage to make it financially even though they are totally broke. Nothing could be further from the truth as he has plans all along to sell the baby to another couple once it is born and then ditch the girl and find another woman to use the same ruse on. He is the perfect con artist and evil trickster. I found the movie interesting to get a glimpse of the gritty, underground world that many Chinese people live in which is no doubt all too true to life. The place they live underground in Beijing not only has little seedy apartments but also shops and places making food. A rather different and engaging movie. An eye opening view of one...
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