Although it’s intended as a satire, director Feng Xiaogang’s movie has a literary tone, a leisurely pace and relatively few laugh-out-loud moments. It captures not only Lian’s frustration, but also the exasperation of the authorities who must deal with the demanding woman during her 11-year quest for justice. While Lian is the central focus, the film neatly conveys the self-interest of various other supporting characters, many of them officials who profess to think only of serving “the people.” In this land of collective idealism, everybody’s got an angle.
The usually glamorous Fan, here playing against type, worked with Feng on 2003’s “Cell Phone,” which showed a painfully up-to-date China. This time the director looks to the past, notably for his visual style. The images are framed to suggest traditional Chinese painting: a circle, for scenes set in Lian’s provincial hometown; a square, for those in Beijing and widescreen, for the poignant epilogue.
Madame Bovary, by the way, is not mentioned in the movie’s Chinese title. The original wording invokes a different adulteress: Pan Jinlian, infamous in Chinese lore, but little known in the West.
Unrated. At AMC Loews Rio Cinemas 18. Contains a sexual encounter. In Mandarin with subtitles. 128 minutes.
Source: The Washington Post by Mark Jenkins
