Kaiwang chuntian de ditie (2002)

Director:

Yibai Zhang

Writer:

Fendou Liu (writer)

Release Date:

28 May 2002 (China)

Genre:

Drama | Romance

Plot:

Plot Keywords:

Beijing | China | Chinese | Spring | Subway

Cast

Le Geng	...	Jian Bin
Yang Zhang	...	Lao Hu (Tiger)
Lan Ke	...	Public Relations
Yuanyuan Gao	...	Tian Ai
rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Jinglei Xu	...	Xiaohui

Also Known As:

Spring Subway (International: English title) (USA)

Runtime:

China:93 min

Country:

China

Language:

Mandarin

Color:

Color

Company:

Electric Orange Entertainment

Expression of unexpressed thoughts.

An interesting love story on modern metro lifestyle that takes us on a ride of thoughts. The director succeeds in expressing the unexpressed.

This film perfectly fits the bill for the saying 'man has reached the moon but not the heart of the person just a feet away'. It is all about the unexpressed internal conflict but the thoughts of the character's are conveyed with clarity to the audience by means of flashy techniques, and it is here the director scores the points. Predominantly a story of a Beijing couple married for 7 years, and also of two other couples. Jian bin, the husband looses his job but prefers to hide this from his wife and continues to escort her to and from her workplace. A cook having sons, puppies!, develops interest in the wife Xiao Hui and politely puts across the proposal to her in his restaurant. Husband feels jealous and also a complex of inferiority engulfs him and he lies to wife that his boss asked him to go to France. Lies pile up between the couple and they feel the heat of the mental separation while being together.

The screenplay is minutely planned and i rate the movie technically high. The transition from scene to scene, with blank frames in between, is odd for a film made in as recent as 2002, but i liked that. The passage/corridor for the couple's home is visually exploited to the maximum by clever use of light. The scenes in the subway coach, where wheel chair and rain is depicted in the hospital, are tenderly handled. The slow pace at times made me feel that am watching an Ismail Merchant film. Freeze technique is impact-fully used where Jian Bin, disturbed by wife's attitude and his own plight, pulls out the table cloth with laid out dinner in the hotel. Artistes performance is good and in closeups they are perfectly expressive. At places during my viewing experience, i found it difficult to catch the flashback/flash forward episodes and feel like revisiting the film.

Over all, i good film on many counts.