Reviewed by: dleedlee Date: 10/15/2003 Beijing, sometime during or after the Sino-Japanese war. Chun Tao is waste paper collector who lives with her business partner Qianggao(Jiang Wen) a small time documents peddler. They live happily, if illicitly, together, since they are not registered as husband and wife. Chun Tao refuses to register since she is already married. Her real husband deserted her after her wedding. One day, Li Mao, her former husband, a double amputee, shows up. He explains his abandonment, a victim of the disruption caused by the war. The three live civily but uneasily together under the same roof in the same bed amidst the neighborhood gossips ridicule of being a wife-snatcher and a cuckold. An independent spirit who arrived from the village alone and penniless to make her way in life, Chun Tao is immune to the gossips. However, the men succumb to the ridicule and both separately leave Chun Tao. Chun Tao, as in the start of the film is left wandering the streets collecting other people’s waste which she exchanges for matches. Paper for fire, fire for paper. One particularly touching scene: Qinggao, who’ve we’ve earlier seen paste a cigaretter poster girl on the wall becase she reminds him of Chun Tao, after leaving Chun Tao, tears off a street poster of the same girl to keep as a remembrance. Clearly more is going on than I can figure out. Is it a metaphor for the three Chinas or simply a postwar study of three disrupted lives? I don’t know. Perhaps these lines of dialogue gives a clue, roughly: “A man can have two wives, even five concubines. But two husbands, someone will get arrested.” Unfortunately, the director’s only other listed credit RICKSHAW BOY is not available with subs that I know of. All three actors give strong, understated performances. High marks for the cinematography and there are many beautifully composed still images throughout the film, though the few night scenes are a bit murky on the DVD I watched. The pace may be too languid for some and it does seem so towards the end, there is reward enough for this viewer to recommend it. And since this is my inaugural review here, Hi Mom! /YSSY Reviewer Score: 6

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