This film is saved from sentimentality only by its extreme shallowness. The plot, if such a nearly invisible story line can be so dignified, is so slight that we are led perforce to believe that this film is going to be a character study. Endless shots of a young girl galloping across the hills in heavily padded outfits that tend to emphasize her posterior, however, fail to add depth to a character who seems to have only one characteristic - her obsessive love. The young lovers (no smoochy stuff here - all they do on camera is gaze at one another in gooey-eyed vapidity) don't run into any problems except a few brief separations nor do they overcome any challenges to consummating their affair. Someone needs to instruct the director of this film that a primary requirement for dramatic endeavors is that there be some conflict and that it be resolved by characters who develop during the action.
Given the demands on them made by the script and direction, the actors in this film seem to be quite competent - the lead actress has a complete grip over three entire emotions - happy, sad and sick, and expresses these by moving her facial muscles like a real person. Her dewey-eyed freshness is a convincing proof that beauty is, truly, only skin deep. I must also note fine performances by several members of the gourd family who portray pumpkins convincingly in this film.
If you ever meet anyone who thinks Americans have a monopoly on the production of shallow, superficial films masquerading as profound works of art, recommend "The Road Home," which proves that the Chinese can be equally insipid and inane.
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