6th generation director, banned last year with 5 others for filmmaking intolerable to Chinese authorities. Apparently unable to live an emotional life of his own, he intervenes in the lives of people whose trust he violates. Xian Dou's past makes him a marginal, alienated figure who can only connect to society at its unpoliced margins. We sometimes are not sure whose letters are being read, why one scene follows another. Camera movement is unpredictable yet assured.
Performances are uniformly excellent, if understated.
The only disappointment was the sound track, which had an inappropriately slick, polished feel. But that's a minor flaw in what is otherwise one of the most disturbing and important recent films out of China.