Zhou Yu's Train

This film tells the story of a woman who is in love with a poet far away, while a vet near her attempts to win her heart.

"Zhou Yu's Train" is not told in a linear manner, and hence it's super confusing. All the time, I thought there were only three main characters, the woman, the poet and the vet. The story jump back and forth, and it's hard to piece together the fragments to make a coherent story. This is not helped by the slow pace, numerous scenes of train and railway tracks, dragging the film longer than it needs to be. The most confusing thing is the ending, I didn't understand it at all, until I read the message board that says there is in fact a fourth character, also played by Gong Li! The film lost me and my interest completely, and there is no turning back. It would help to understand the story if I watched it again, but I'm not watching it again for sure.

The movie stays with you through the years. I saw the movie more than a decade ago and I still remember it. It seems slow-paced especially for young people, but it has lessons about life and relationships. The symbol of the lake used in this movie is very powerful (beautiful natural lake versus artificial lake). Love relationships could be exactly like the lake example.

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.

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.

"The way to a woman's heart is through a poem".....so it seemed in this visually stunning cinematic experience.

One eventful day, Zhou Yu a pretty painter from Sanming embarked on a train for trip. She chanced upon a handsome but shy aspiring poet, Chen Ching. He captivated her and soon captured her heart with his poem personifying her natural beauty and comparing it to that a celestial lake.

Soon they fell in love and began their twice weekly passionate affair while commuting to the city of Chongyang. But a fellow commuter named simply as Zhang Qiang, a veterinarian came in between the two lovebirds, with a secret amorous agenda of his own for Zhou Yu.

But this is more than just a love triangle!

A new woman named Xiu came into the scene. She looked exactly like Zhou Yu. But the scene took on a different era; a different time period. She was reading the book, "Zhou Yu's Train".

Is Zhou Yu a real person? Is Zhou Yu really was Xiu? Or is Zhou Yu a figment of Xiu's romantic imagination?

Be prepared for this surreal, non-linear movie experience.