Baober in Love

Thrown out of his swanky Beijing apartment by his wife, unfulfilled wage-slave Liu (magnetic newcomer Huang) sets up home with the wild and crazy Baober (Zhou in her best role since Suzhou River). They enjoy a period of psychedelic rapture (the entire film is digitally retouched, a first for China), but he carelessly drives her away and finds himself bereft and helpless. She, meanwhile, takes up with a physically handicapped sportsman. Liu's frantic search for her uncovers some uncomfortable truths about her past and his sexism. A Chinese Betty Blue (but without the misogynistic pay-off), it's funny, sexy and sad in equal measures - and the mix of oneiric fantasy and social realism is fresh and winning. None of Li's films looks or sounds much like any of the others, but this ground-breaker establishes her as the only 'fifth generation' director to keep pace with changing times.