A good movie

Even though I watch Asian movies on a regular basis, I'm not really familiar with Chen Kaige's work so I was rather intrigued by this flick. First of all, I just loved the directing style. Indeed, the directing was rather understated like most of Asian movies but it was really beautiful to look at and it was the same about the performances. Indeed, they were so subtle, the actors didn't say much, didn't do much but they were able to convey many emotions nonetheless. Unfortunately, I thought that the plot was rather pedestrian in the sense that most of it had already been done many times before in other movies. Even when the kid was training to become a great violin player, I couldn't help thinking of 'The Karate Kid' for example. Still, even though it is nothing really amazing in my opinion, it remains a very well made and touching drama, I really enjoyed it and it is definitely worth a look, especially if you are interested in Asian movies.

7/10