Beautiful and poignant
C. Neuman | Ridgewood, New Jersey, United States | 07/30/2007
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This film won:
Best Actress, Shanghai International Film Festival
Best Picture, Best Director, Shanghai Film Critics Award
Silver People's Choice Award, India International Film Festival
This film is a visual poem, just simply beautiful. The story quietly tells the hardships of bringing precious drinking water to a Hunan mountain village. All the villagers---men AND women, have to help, carrying the heavy water through a narrow, rocky pass to this mountain village. The main characters are Ah-ming and A-Shui, they love each other but Ah-ming is forced into an arranged marriage. Ah-ming's wife eventually leaves,and Ah-shui is forced to go the city for a while to find work. The story is told from the point of view of a visitor involved in a difficult dam project to help the village.
"
Beautiful but repetitive
J. Johnson | Connecticut | 06/19/2008
(2 out of 5 stars)
"This movie definitely has some excellent cinematography and beautiful landscapes in the scenery, but I found it very boring. It seems that for half of the movie all that is going on is people are walking down the mountain then back up with water, then repeat. The drama unfolds with some slow motion shots of people almost tripping and/or spilling the water. I have to say there are some intriguing moments though. If you must see this movie, I would recommend the box set 'Beautiful Women of China'. For a few dollars more it includes this movie, Ju-Dou, and Life Show. Please note that as in the Ju-Dou individual DVD reviews, the video transfer quality is sub-par for Ju-Dou in the box set as well."