And The Spring Comes

Changwei Gu’s lukewarm follow-up to acclaimed debut ‘Peacock’ charts the burgeoning aspirations of an unattractive schoolteacher as she struggles to capitalise on her remarkable singing voice. A series of encounters with a host of money-grabbing characters, including a homosexual ballerina punching above his weight, fail to reconcile her to the joys of human companionship. This examination of loneliness, in all its shades of grey, is beautifully paced from start to finish but hits a few hollow notes along the way.