Now playing: Trailer
Release year: 2002
Zhou Yu (Li Gong) is an artisan living in Sanming, an industrial town in Northwestern China. Twice a week, she takes the train to rural Chongyang to visit her lover, a shy, handsome poet named Chen Ching (Ka Fai). Inspired by Zhou's beauty, Chen has crafted a series of poems for her, which has only drawn her closer to this quiet, gentle man. On one trip to see him, she encounters a friendly young veterinarian, Dr. Zhang Jiang (Honglei Sun), who tries to purchase one of Zhou's ceramic vases - a gift intended for Chang that she throws to the ground rather than sell to a persistent Zhang. As the shards of the vase shatter on the floor of the train, we see the pieces of Zhou's romantic life with Chen - their first chance encounter at a dance where Chen gives her a beautiful poem before disappearing; her return to Chongyang to pursue him; their hungry lovemaking in the library where Chen works and lives; and the rush of passion as, despite the expense and inconvenience, Zhou returns to the countryside again and again to sate her restless heart. She speaks of selling family heirlooms in order to help Chen publish his poetry, and uses her savings to set up a public reading that no one attends.
Zhou Yu (Li Gong) is an artisan living in Sanming, an industrial town in Northwestern China. Twice a week, she takes the train to rural Chongyang to visit her lover, a shy, handsome poet named Chen Ching (Ka Fai). Inspired by Zhou's beauty, Chen has crafted a series of poems for her, which has only drawn her closer to this quiet, gentle man. On one trip to see him, she encounters a friendly young veterinarian, Dr. Zhang Jiang (Honglei Sun), who tries to purchase one of Zhou's ceramic vases - a gift intended for Chang that she throws to the ground rather than sell to a persistent Zhang. As the shards of the vase shatter on the floor of the train, we see the pieces of Zhou's romantic life with Chen - their first chance encounter at a dance where Chen gives her a beautiful poem before disappearing; her return to Chongyang to pursue him; their hungry lovemaking in the library where Chen works and lives; and the rush of passion as, despite the expense and inconvenience, Zhou returns to the countryside again and again to sate her restless heart. She speaks of selling family heirlooms in order to help Chen publish his poetry, and uses her savings to set up a public reading that no one attends.
