Dir: Zhang Yimou, China, 2000 (8*)

Zhang Yimou (Hero, To Live, House of Flying Daggers) scores big again with this Sundance award winner that covers a love story from beginning to end, lasting several decades. The story is told in flashback after a young man’s father dies and he goes home for the funeral, and his mother insists that since the father died in another village, his body must be carried home by friends and relatives, "or the spirit can’t find its way home". In the flashbacks, the mother is played by Ziyi Zhang (her first starring role) as she meets and loves a new schoolteacher in the village who came there from a city. This is a simple romance, and a beautiful blend of scenery with Chinese folk traditions. Zhang was stunning in her first film.