Review: Ye che (2007)

[Steve Rhodes]

NIGHT TRAIN
A film review by Steve Rhodes
Copyright 2009 Steve Rhodes

RATING (0 TO ****):  **

Writer and director Diao Yinan's NIGHT TRAIN (YE CHE) is one of those 
infuriating films that attempts to make a virtue out of the obscurity of its 
narrative and the painful slowness of its pacing.

Some parts of NIGHT TRAIN do work well -- the parts that don't involve the 
script or the acting.  In its opening sequence, we watch a woman from the 
back and listen to the snow crunching beneath her feet as she makes her away 
across a frozen road.  The images, as well as the sound of the blowing wind, 
convey an effective chill that will have you putting on your jacket and 
maybe even your hood as well.

The rest of the movie, filmed under universally overcast skies, also gives a 
palpable feeling of cold and doom.  Depression seems around every corner, 
and rarely has life in the People's Republic of China appeared less 
hospitable.

The story, however, is purposely oblique.  We have a magician who uses his 
modest skills to impress and flirt with women.  We have a woman, who is said 
to have been a prostitute working at the Yo-Yo Motel -- got to love that 
name.  And we have a very sad woman whose job is that of an executioner.  We 
know she hates her work since we witness her burning the clothes she wore to 
the execution.  Since defendants are only given 10 days to appeal, the 
implication is that executions are quite common.

All of this might be more involving, except that the director's ability to 
effectively tell a story is questionable.  With little dialog, the movie 
meanders along, testing viewers' patience in every scene.  Rarely does it 
give us any reason to care or any reason to try to sort out the story and 
its various characters.

NIGHT TRAIN runs 1:34.  The film is in Mandarin with English subtitles.

The film is being shown as part of San Jose's Cinequest Film Festival 
(www.Cinequest.org), which runs February 25-March 8, 2009.

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