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Zhou Yu's Train

EMAILPRINTSony Pictures Classics

Zhou Yu's Train reviews
49
5.8 User Score:

Mixed or average reviews

Based on 23 critic reviews
How did we calculate this?

Based on 6 votes
Read user comments
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Movie Info

Genre(s): Drama  |  Foreign  |  Romance

Written by: Be Cun
Sun Zhou
Zhang Mei

Directed by: Sun Zhou

Release Date:
Theatrical: July 16, 2004
DVD: November 23, 2004

Running Time: 97 minutes, Color

Origin: China / Hong Kong

Summary

RATING: PG-13 for sexuality

Starring Gong Li, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Sun Honglei, and Li Zhixiong

Driven by three remarkable performances and a multi-layered narrative structure, this film reveals the intimate parallels within the folds of a love triangle. (Sony Pictures Classics)

What The Critics Said

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

80

Washington Post Stephen Hunter

It's a terrific film because each of the characters is so fiercely felt.

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75

New York Post V.A. Musetto

Breathtakingly filmed (lots of slow-motion) by Wang Yu, but then it would be difficult to go wrong when your star is one of the world's most beautiful women.

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75

Seattle Post-Intelligencer Bill White

Full of mystery, romance and ambiguity, Zhou Yu's Train is a tight mosaic of a film.

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75

San Francisco Chronicle Carla Meyer

An intriguing brain-teaser.

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70

LA Weekly Ella Taylor

If Zhou Yu’s Train is finally no more than whimsy, it’s classy, delicate whimsy, a testament to the way romantic love, however unsatisfied, continues to drive itself.

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70

Los Angeles Times Kevin Thomas

Seems at once overwhelmingly romantic and elliptical, yet all the while it has been building to a conclusion that is surprisingly affecting in the jolt of recognition it elicits.

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63

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Liam Lacey

Lyrical, dreamy and too complicated for its own good.

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60

Variety Derek Elley

Chinese thesp Gong Li goes for a striking career makeover in Zhou Yu's Train, a sensual, slickly packaged slice of Euro-style metaphysical cinema centered on a free-thinking woman and the two men in her life.

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58

Entertainment Weekly Lisa Schwarzbaum

The movie follows convoluted narrative tracks. By the end of the drowsy journey, the characters are indistinguishable from the scenery.

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50

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

These are not the marks of true cinema; they're the makings of a droopy karaoke video.

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50

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

An empty lake, drained of any tangible substance and refilled with wispy, pseudo-poetic metaphor.

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50

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

Like some of Joan Crawford's and Bette Davis's studio vehicles, this soapy romance exists only for what Gong Li can bring to it: a certain amount of soul and nuance.

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50

Chicago Sun-Times Roger Ebert

Tells a pointlessly convoluted version of a love story that would really be very simple, if anyone in the movie possessed common sense.

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50

Miami Herald Marta Barber

Beautiful to look at but aimless as a broken compass.

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50

Philadelphia Inquirer Carrie Rickey

Sadly, the combination of gauzy photography and cheesy music gives the film the aura of a fragrance commercial.

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42

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

Before dismissing Zhou Yu's Train as the over-conceived, over-edited, under-written perfume ad that it is, the following must be said: It's great to see Gong Li onscreen again.

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40

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

It just may be a movie that has difficulty transcending national borders.

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40

TV Guide Ken Fox

While the film's erotic symbolism is surprisingly obvious -- all those trains and tunnels! -- it's otherwise bafflingly vague.

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40

The Hollywood Reporter Richard James Havis

It's an unusual idea but fails -- Sun spends so much time on the mood and atmosphere that he forgets about the story.

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40

The New York Times Dave Kehr

Comes to seem less a movie than a memory of movies -- or, at worst, a commercial Frankenstein's monster, sewn together to fill a perceived gap in the market.

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38

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

A ticket to this movie is a season's pass on that train - and you must complete every ride.

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30

Village Voice David Blaylock

Devolves from opaque mystery into boring melodramatics and incoherent contrivances.

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30

Washington Post Michael O'Sullivan

Less a tale of mysterious, tragic love than a three-way Harlequin romance.

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What Our Users Said

The average user rating for this movie is 5.8 (out of 10) based on 6 User Votes

Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

ian m gave it an8:
I thought it was good.i agree, the plot was hard to follow, nut with the following of several characters on separate timeliness its not gonna be easy. quite a few of the shots were really very artistic and well done.

Krystyna gave it a5:
Director seems obsessed with the camera, less so with the plot. As the movie was nearing the end, I was frantically trying to make sense of the plot, but when the movie came to an end, all I could say was "huh"? I then ran for the computer and did a search for film reviews. Upon reading some reviews I was reassured that it wasn't my fault I couldn't follow the plot.

Michael B. gave it a5:
Zhou Sun directs Gong Li in dual roles in a New China soap opera. Every weekend Zhou Yu (Li) takes a long train ride to see her lover Chu Qing, a low-level bureaucrat and sensitive poet. Although we see no evidence of passion between them, Zhou Yu sacrifices family heirlooms and some of her best ceramic creations to get a book of his poetry published. Concurrently, she has a passionate affair with the rather shallow veterinarian Zhang Chiang. Neither relationship is completely satisfying to her. Chu Qing ends up as a schoolteacher in Tibet, living with a girl from his hometown who is unremarkable except for her resemblance to Zhou Yu with a different hairstyle. It seems to be a trope on the ancient belief that we each have two souls, one animal and the other spiritual. A truly great love would then demand one person who excites equal passion in both our souls.

Chad S. gave it a 4:
Even before we arrive at "The Double Life of Veronique" nonsense, "Zhou Yu's Train" wasn't working for me, largely because of Zhou Yu's (Gong Li) high-maintenance personality, which would be more compatable with an investment banker than a poet. Zhou never struck me as a romantic, and someone who would tolerate a man who generates a low income. As a result, the love affair she conducts with Cheng Qing (Tony Leung Ka Fai) never ignites, or feel the least bit convincing. When he moves to Taipei, "Zhou Yu's Train" really starts to drag, as we're greeted by scene after scene of her moping. Director Sun Zhou has some talent, but he runs out of interesting camera set-ups and angles with that damn train after Zhou Yu's sixth, or seventh trip.

Vince H. gave it a 3:
A ponderous, Wong Kar-Wei wannabe that often bores and frustrates more than intrigues. I must go back to the Wong reference mainly because this movie is so CLEARLY influenced stylistically and thematically by Wong's masterpiece "In the Mood For Love", but instead of homage it comes off more like a Tarantino-ish ripoff. A block of music that is repeated throughout, slow dreamy pan shots & close-ups and abstract compositions, etc. The only reason I give this a 3 is because Gong Li is the most beautiful woman to ever grace the planet Earth.

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