Reptileenbu Did you people see the same film I saw?

ChanFamous I wanted to like it more than I actually did... But much of the humor totally escaped me and I walked out only mildly impressed.

Dirtylogy It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

Juana what a terribly boring film. I'm sorry but this is absolutely not deserving of best picture and will be forgotten quickly. Entertaining and engaging cinema? No. Nothing performances with flat faces and mistaking silence for subtlety.

Paul Magne Haakonsen 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.

njmollo Zhou Yu's Train is a very slow film without any real narrative flow. It is also over-long and exceedingly boring. Close-up shots of Gong Li "thinking" or slow motion shots of her running seem to go on forever. My main problem is that Gong Li's character comes across as a selfish and spoilt bitch. Just because she is beautiful and everyone wants to "have" her does not make her likable? She sleeps with a man and when he asks the stupid question "Do you like me or the poet?" She replies quite coldly the poet. This is almost verbal castration and extremely cruel.The film is beautifully shot but the settings are cold, ugly and modern. This film so wants to be a poetical and profound but really is nothing more than a humourless and far from entertaining exercise.

lastliberal Li Gong is just about the best thing ever to come out of China. No matter how many films I have seen featuring her, I am always impressed.This is a difficult film to watch. You are never quite sure who you are watching. Li Gong is in a relationship with a poet (Tony Leung Ka Fai) and the practical vet (Honglei Sun). She travels by train between them.But, are we watching events in real time or narrated? It seems that what we are seeing is in the past. That the poet, Chen Qing, has a current relationship, and only has Zhou Yu in his heart.If this were an American film, then I believe it would probably be relegated to Lifetime, but with Li Gong, we have more than romance; we have poetry.

pagrn1 Quite simply one of the best films ever made! Every element combines to produce a multi-layered masterpiece that revolves around the central tour-de-force that is Gong Li. This has to be her best film yet and she is wholly served by her fellow actors and production crew. Director Sun Zhou is a master of light with every scene's mood enhanced by his total control of the medium. One would like to have seen this film win multiple awards but the limited number of screens available to 'difficult' films like this make it nearly impossible to attain the recognition it deserves. Equally, Gong Li - the world's most beautiful and accomplished film actress - remains unknown to the unhappy teenagers who have only a diet of dross on which to feed their heads.