Zhang Yimou's mosty recent,and the movie that marked Zhang Ziyi's emergence as a major star. This is a very quiet, subdued effort that relies on subtle emotions to tell what in the end is a very touching love story.
The movie starts in B/W, in a desolate winter landscape, with no music and stark, cold cinematography: The narrator has returned to his parental village to help bury his father, the late school teacher, who has died in the neighboring town and is now awaiting burial. According to old customs, his mother insists that her husband's coffin be carried by the villagers on foot from the town to his home so that he "may remember and find his way home".

All this turns out to be a narrative frame for the movie's actual story: recalling/showing the courtship/love story between his father as a young man when he first arrived in the village, and his mother as a young girl, played by Zhang Ziyi. Once the movie shifts to this story, the cinematography becomes softer, colors are introduced, as is music, and the season changes to summer. What follows is a touching, bittersweet and very heart-warming narrative completely dominated by Zhang Ziyi, who gives an astounding performance. The camera is clearly in love with her, and she manages to convey all the conflicting emotions of first love with little dialog and without ever touching a falso note. There is no melodrama, and in fact little happens at all. Instead, the movie concentrates on the little things that happen between two people slowly falling in love.

Somewhere along the way, Zhang Yimou can't help subtly adding some levels of symbolism (such as the "road home" motif, that seems to stand for some of the unresolved issues between China's mordern urban reality and its rural past). But none of that is obtrusive, and the love story unfolds at a gingerly pace and in a very satisfying manner. It's a shame to see what Zhang Ziyi can do under the hands of a good director and then to think of her in Rush Hour 2, or that her next American movie will be an Adam Sandler comedy. What a waste of talent...

Strongly recommended. The R1 Columbia DVD is excellent (although some extras like a Commentary track would have been nice).