You enter a theater, and suddenly there's a Mass Movement in front of your eyes. Actually I find you quite attractive. So the reserve of these characters, actors and films is not necessarily the sullenness of European art films. It could be self-protective wariness. Best to blend into the scenery, to seem a gray person in a gray nation.
Chameleons survive, and no one thinks to ask what a chameleon is thinking.
The screaming is up to you. For all their social urgency, these films are rarely zippy. Long pauses punctuate short speeches. You could recite a list of the Chinese dynasties of the past 1,500 years between each speech. 2001 Time Inc. All rights reserved.