Don't be mislead into thinking that a film about the Chinese Cultural Revolution has to be heavy. This one is delightfully light, at times quite funny, but not trivial.

Describing one film review in Hong Kong serves well to describe the film itself. The critic used 90% of the review to say how the film is unrealistic, somewhat over-literary, a bit over-romantic, etc. In the last paragraph, however, despite everything that he said before, he gave the film top rating simply because it was so beautifully made.

The three young people are such a joy to watch. The message I get (which may not be the one intended by the director) is that no matter under what circumstances, youthfulness will prevail. For those who follow the international movie scene, Zhou Xun and Liu Ye wouldn't be total strangers. Chen Kun, the third of the trio, put up an equally sparkling performance. All the supporting roles are great too, and there are quite a few of them.

The scenery is breathtaking and the ending (which of course I won't give away) is very poetic.

It's one of the best, if not the best, "Chinese" film I've ever seen (Chinese in quotes because it's really French, and represents France in the Golden Globe, losing, narrowly I hope, to Almodovar's masterpiece Talk to Her) .