Beneath a mist of soft focus and plaintive glances, there may be a good movie in “Zhou Yu’s Train,” a new Chinese film.
It is difficult to find, however. This romance is arty rather than artful, and the storyline is so confusing I didn’t understand exactly what was going on until I read the synopsis after I saw the film.
At the center of the film is Gong Li, that stupendously beautiful actress who lighted up the films of Zhang Yimou for many years (including “Raise the Red Lantern”). She plays Zhou Yu, an artisan in a small factory making exquisite porcelain objects.
A couple of times a week, she takes a long train ride to see her lover in another town, Chen (Tony Leung Ka Fai), a tongue-tied poet. He is penniless and gifted, and Zhou Yu becomes his muse.
An outgoing veterinarian (Sun Hong Lei), who rides the same train, becomes intrigued by Zhou Yu’s regular journeys. He pursues her, but she is true to Chen, despite the difficulty of their long-distance affair.
The key scene in the picture seems to be a trip Zhou Yu takes to find a lake that Chen has written about; he compared the lake to Zhou Yu herself. The lovestruck doctor tags along with her, but the lake isn’t there.
It raises the question of whether the lake exists only in Chen’s artistic imagination, and whether that is just as real as something found in nature. Of course, this would have been a more interesting question if I had been able to follow what was going on in the movie.
Director Sun Zhou fills the screen with close-ups of his actors and tantalizing glimpses of modern China. He leans toward the swooning gesture and generous music on the soundtrack. He’s channeling the spirit of the poet, not the veterinarian.
Give him credit for finding a fresh, quick quality in Gong Li’s acting. She seems more spontaneous here, and much more modern, than in some of her films with Zhang Yimou.
She plays two roles: Zhou Yu and another woman with short-cropped hair. Because the film unfolds in a jumble of flashbacks and time-shifts, it’s hard to know who this other woman is, although I spent most of the picture assuming it was the main character seen at a later date. It’s not.
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“Zhou Yu’s Train” HH
Puzzling: A young woman travels by train to meet her poet lover. Arty rather than artful, the movie’s story is unfortunately a puzzle to sort out. (In Cantonese, with English subtitles.) Rated: PG-13 rating is for subject matter.
Now showing: Varsity.
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“Zhou Yu’s Train” is made, I guess, for romance fans who don’t mind working out a puzzle. Perhaps it will work for them, but I had the sensation of being left behind at the station.
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