"Music without emotion is like a gun without bullets," says Professor Yu to young violinist Liu Xiaochun. And that's what this film is: a study of emotion, music, and the relationships that bring music and emotion together.
The story revolves around a son's relationship to his father, as his father takes the boy to Beijing to become rich and famous as a violinist. The boy, Liu Xiaochun, played by Yun Tang, seems to have all odds against him: a peasant's background, a careless teacher (Prof. Jiang, played well by Zhiwen Wang), and a troubled young woman (Lili, played by Hong Chen). The boy seeks to overcome these odds with the help of his father, played by Peiqi Liu, who puts forth the best performance in the film.
The film carries with it a sort of "fairy-tale" atmosphere that celebrates music and family. The music played in the film is indeed beautiful, and the highlights of the film occur in scenes where wonderful classical music is played. The direction by Kaige Chen is also very good, especially in one particular scene in the train station near the end of the film.
Nevertheless, where Chen succeeds as director, he fails as a writer. As you may be able to see from the quote I have placed at the beginning of this review, the screenplay, written by Chen and Xiao Lu Xue, is full of generic material, mixed with some Americanization, which is frustrating because most people watch foreign films to escape familiarity. Although the acting of Wang and Liu is superb, the acting on the parts of the other characters is not always so solid, and that fact may be due to the poor screenplay with which they are forced to work. Furthermore, the fairy-tale atmosphere, although suitable, takes away from some of the films "should-be" powerful reality, especially in relation to the conflicts in the film.
Overall, though, this one is worth your time, although it's sad that the most powerful moments in the film are derived from music written centuries ago.
Final Grade: B.
