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雲南故事 (1994)
Yunnan Story


Reviewed by: Inner Strength
Date: 05/17/2002
Summary: Not bad

The story starts off in the mid 40’s with celebrations in China after the Sino-Japanese war. It tells the story of Teng (half Chinese half Japanese), who is a young women left stranded after she lost track of her parents whilst fleeing to Japan. She is in desperation at her current situation, and has nothing else to do but take her own life. That is until the army stumble upon her and she is taken to a hospital. The majority of the story is then concentrated in and around the small hospital and village and then leads into quite a heavy drama about several people, but mainly Teng and the commander in the Chinese army who found her. Obviously as she is of Chinese and Japanese inheritance, she is subjected to a lot of problems from the Chinese villagers, and has to cope as best she can.

The film goes on through a generation and she is finally reunited with her parents after she meets a Japanese man who tracked them down for her. It's now the 90's, and she finds out that she also now has a sister. It gets quite emotional in the film, as she sees family members she has never seen before. Ting also has children, who have grown up well in the village, and now also lead their own life. But it's still a bit strange in places, and jumps scenes to scenes at some points.

It’s quite good, and there are enough interesting characters each with their own story to tell to keep the viewer interested, but unfortunately this one lost my interest before the half way mark. Not to say it’s bad, because I’m usually keen on dramas and can stick with most of them, no matter how over-dramatic some can be, but this was too slow for me and likely to be even slower for most other people.

Still, some very good performances from the entire cast, especially from Lam Gin Wa. The backdrops are also very good, meaning you can enjoy that even if you can’t get into the story. The film work was again very good, as was the overall feel to it, but again it’s just a shame it was set at such a slow pace.

This also won an award for its music, which is indeed excellent.

Rating: [3.5/5]