Rating of
2.5/4
Sweet movie about a shallow romance
Andulamb - wrote on 10/02/20
This Is a sweet but unsubstantial Chinese tear-jerker. Almost every scene is an attempt to squeeze every last tear out of the audience. A new teacher comes to town, and a cutely-braided Chinese girl instantly falls ln love - perhaps even before she's seen him. I'm not a big fan of love-at-first-sight stories, especially when that First Sight is not followed up by anything of substance. Why does this girl love the teacher? They don't have a single conversation of any significance before he is whisked back to The City, and yet she's willing to wait years for his return. The one thing this movie gets very right, however, is the importance people place on sentimental objects. I suspect an American film would have whittled the story down to one Sentimental Object, but this film realistically gives us many: the red/pink jacket, the hair clip, the bowl, the well, the school, the road, and the loom. I was expecting one of these to turn up again at the end of the film (highlighted by being the only object in color, ala Schindler's list), but no. Another thing this movie has going for it is that it takes the viewer to a small Chinese village. One does get tired of American films that are either set in large metropolitan cities or picture-perfect small-town-USA. Watch this movie for the braids, the location, and for understanding the importance of sentimental objects.
