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These stories and more (the tempestuous neighbours, the son-in-law's pregnant bride) are told with unhurried grace. Yang uses his generational cast to make observations about life and love at every age, from Yang-Yang's revelatory first sighting of knickers to NJ's endless regret that a missed date thirty years ago took his life down a different path. Yang expertly weaves these vignettes with a natural intimacy which completely connects you to the characters' histories and futures, and he balances the multiple plot strands with grace. There are moments of profound sadness and riotous joy. It's all done with an easy realism, and carried by Peng Kaili's simple and beautiful score.
The only problem was the time thing. For the first hour and a half, I adored this film. After two hours, I was fairly satisfied. At two and a half, I was pretty much ready for it to wrap up. At three the credits finally rolled, but not before a couple of plot developments in the last act that seemed to undermine the realism of the film (one scene in particular looked like an out-take from the Hong Kong gangster film
To Be Number One). Maybe I have a 90-minute moviegoer brain, maybe it was because the film started at 9pm on a work day, but the length undermined what until then had been a sublime cinema experience. Maybe you're more patient than me, or more awake; in which case, and especially if you enjoy family dramas along the lines of
Eat Drink Man Woman, I recommend this gentle film wholeheartedly. It was a near-perfect start to my 2002 Melbourne Film Festival.
Rating: 8 eight-year old photographer's snapshots out of 10.
Reviewed by Mark Morrison
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