Comments: Good characters, insightful on relationships, especially the main one as it hits its seven year mark with complications. Zhang Yibai maybe tries to be a little too offbeat to tell this simple story, a few too many fade-to-black moments, a thread or two left unresolved, but he is trying to make the realities a little dreamlike and ever so slightly jolting. He repeats scenes from different genesis points. His characters break the fourth wall and address the audience. He does a number of things that I generally dislike but its a sign of his talent that when all is said and done I really enjoyed the film. Jinglei Xu is very charming.
Summary: A visually stylized and offbeat tale of urban romance from music video director Zhang Yibai, Spring Subway is the first release from the Beijing-based, independent production company Electric Orange Entertainment. Their seven-year-old marriage collapsing from simple ennui, twentysomething city dwellers Jian Bin (Geng Le) and Xiaohui (Xu Jinglei) cling to familiarity in hopes of maintaining their comfortably numb existence. While designer Xiaohui embarks on a extramarital affair with one of her co-workers, Jian Bin doesn't tell Xiaohui about getting fired from his job and maintains the facade of going to work by spending his day on the Beijing subway. Eavesdropping on young couples in love while daydreaming on the subway, Jian Bin himself is tempted with infidelity when he comes to the aid of an injured schoolteacher and provides anonymous care from afar during her convalescence in a local hospital. If Xiaohui and Jian Bin can only bring themselves to be as honest with one another as they are with their outside relationships, there may yet be hope for their marriage.
Kaiwang chuntian de ditie
2002
China
Spring Subway
