Edgar Soberon Torchia This motion picture defines the word "artsy". A film about a young and pretty porcelain painter who falls in love with a shy and melancholic poet (played by Sun Honleig), it aims to be a poetic work, but what you get is lots of ralenti shots to the point of saturation, piano and strings music, pretty landscapes enshrouded in fog, trains entering and exiting tunnels and Gong Li... In the past Miss Gong inspired true poetic films, as those directed by Zhang Yimou, but this movie is not one. Tony Leung plays another suitor, a sympathetic veterinarian with a welcome sense of humor, too materialistic to understand romantic love and literary inspiration, and wise to keep a distance, but not enough to balance this melodrama, with too much emphasis on sad love. I love trains, but this trip is on the boring side.

Gordon-11 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.

Desertman84 Zhou Yu's Train is a Chinese film starring Gong Li and Tony Leung Ka- Fai.The title refers to a poetic compilation published by the character in the movie played by Leung. The story starts at a book signing event and leads to the memories of the two lovers encounters. The story maintained the relationship by commuting on the train, hence the title of the movie.It was directed by Sun Zhou.Zhou Yu's Train is set in Chongyang and Sanming. A young painter named Zhou Yu falls headlong in love with a painfully shy poet, Chen Ching. Twice a week she takes the train to his town to be with him, even though he's bewildered by her near-obsessive passion. On the train, a wise- cracking veterinarian pursues Zhou Yu, but she resists his emotional directness. Zhou Yu's Train bounces back and forth, not only between these two romances but also in time, to confusing effect. But there's something compelling about Zhou Yu's need to love the version of her lover that she holds in her mind, and that sustains the movie through its muddled moments.Zhou Yu's Train could be best described as a convoluted love triangle.Also,the characters aren't presented in terms of their objectives.What's worse,the film is pieced together with many flashbacks in no particular chronological order which makes the story confusing to the viewers especially to those who do not understand Chinese or the Chinese culture.We're too busy trying to figure out who's who and what's what, when we should be ruminating on the multiple implications of an intimate story of love's labors lost.The only positive thing I could say about it is that the cinematography and the presence of the gorgeous Gong Li and nothing more.

njmollo Zhou Yu's Train is a very slow film without any real narrative flow. It is also over-long and exceedingly boring. Close-up shots of Gong Li "thinking" or slow motion shots of her running seem to go on forever. My main problem is that Gong Li's character comes across as a selfish and spoilt bitch. Just because she is beautiful and everyone wants to "have" her does not make her likable? She sleeps with a man and when he asks the stupid question "Do you like me or the poet?" She replies quite coldly the poet. This is almost verbal castration and extremely cruel.The film is beautifully shot but the settings are cold, ugly and modern. This film so wants to be a poetical and profound but really is nothing more than a humourless and far from entertaining exercise.