Yang Chao's evocative road picture begins with an atmospheric shot of a railway station that, aside from Zhang Xigui's beautiful color cinematography, might have come from a 1930s John Ford film. Audiences used to the snap and crackle of Hollywood films will be restless with the film's deliberate pace, but patient viewers will be rewarded with a thoughtful contemplation of how difficult it is to throw over the constraints of a tightly controlled society. Yang takes his time telling the story of Chen Xi Su (Geng Le) and Xiao Ping (Chang Jieping) as they flout convention and flee their families and school in order to break free of the stifling restrictions of tradition and expectation.

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