Teringer An Exercise In Nonsense

RipDelight This is a tender, generous movie that likes its characters and presents them as real people, full of flaws and strengths.

Taraparain Tells a fascinating and unsettling true story, and does so well, without pretending to have all the answers.

Haven Kaycee It is encouraging that the film ends so strongly.Otherwise, it wouldn't have been a particularly memorable film

ZivileZab Eastern people are very strange. For my European mind. But my post-sovietic mind can understand the absurd of communism. People are going where the system sends them and think they are doing something very appreciable for others. Well, mostly things like it are useful for those in highest chairs.A little girl goes to the countryside to help people. She's so innocent and her plaits are a symbol for it. When she's sent to prairies to live with horses breeder Lao Jin for six months she's so shy and afraid he can do something bad to her. But he can't – long time ago his manhood has been sliced off.After the time she had to go back she's still with Lao in the fields. But she wants go home. And suddenly a man comes and says he can help her. And gives her an apple (symbolic, right?). The next time he comes he wants something from her. And his friends wants the same. They say that's the only one way to go home. Yeah, right...Lao Jin sees and understands everything, but Xiu doesn't want to hear anything from him. But when „surprisingly" she becomes pregnant Lao is only one who helps her. And in the end the only one who frees her. When she's back to her innocence and plaits.It's a sad story. And very eastern. Gee, this really could have happened! Stupid system and dickbrained men.

MartinHafer Xiu Xiu is one of many young people transplanted from their homes in the city to the countryside in an ill-fated attempt by the government to enforce an exchange-type program. The aims might have originally been noble, but this story is about one fictitious girl who suffers greatly because she is dumped "in the middle of nowhere" and is forgotten. Life as a nomadic horse herder doesn't suit this city girl well and her promised return home never materializes--making her desperate to do anything to get back.This is an interesting film because it is critical of the Chinese Communist regime of the 1960s--only something you might have seen in a film made in China in very recent years. It also talks about sexual abuse and exploitation. However, despite these being interesting topics, the overall product left me curiously flat and unimpressed--mostly because the characters were difficult to relate to, were amoral and were amazingly one-dimensional. This SHOULD have left me a lot more satisfied, as films with similar themes (such as "Lan feng zheng", otherwise known as THE BLUE KITE) but instead I just felt detached and wanted the film to end and end soon. I wanted to like this film a lot more than I actually did.FYI--Parents, this film is not appropriate for younger viewers both because of sexual content and because the birth scene is pretty gross. Think twice before letting your kids see this one.

murs0 my friend I find the music in the movie pretty supportive to the silence that the two characters shared. Lately I'm turning more towards these recent canto movies mainly because of their better and much appropriate music.Watch 'Four Seasons' and 'Vertical Ray of the Sun' and I think you'll understand what I'm trying to say...maybe I'm wrong!

equiart This is a very powerful movie about a very important and real subject. It made its point very forcefully with the use of strong and explicit scenes that I'm afraid have been with me ever since I watched this movie and promise to appear in my mind day and night for quite some time. I hate to say that I wish I hadn't seen a well-made movie, but that is the case here. If you are very emotionally affected by movies like I am, I recommend that you pick up a good book about the history of sexual politics in China instead.