Green Tea

Even high-powered star turns from Jiang and Zhao and intense close-ups-in-motion camerawork from Chris Doyle can't turn Zhang's latest riff on the sex war into a good night out. Based on a short story by co-scripter Jin, it starts with a seemingly disastrous blind date: doctoral student Wu (Zhao) meets overgrown lad Chen (Jiang) in a chic teahouse and smartly exits when she realises they have nothing in common. But Chen, hooked, lays siege to her and eventually - by dint of persistence, dogged charm and strategic self-deprecation - manages to make friends. And then he meets bar pianist Langlang (Zhao again), who seems sexually available and uncannily resembles the elusive Wu but denies any knowledge of her. Whether this is Zhang seriously imagining he's illuminating the 'paradox' of female sexuality or Zhang rather desperately trying for the Suzhou River market, it's grindingly repetitive and palpably insincere.