Green Tea
66
5
Story
8
Cast
6
Fun
8
Subs
6
Overall
Disi Hu
December 20, 2003
Movie poster for Green Tea (2003) - Review | KFCC
Country China
Genre DramaRomance
Year 2003
Running Time 83
Distributor Guangzhou WA Video Product & Publish Ltd. Co.
Producer Yan Gang
Director Zhang Yuan
Scene from the movie Green Tea (2003) - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Green Tea (2003) - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Green Tea (2003) - Review | KFCC
Synopsis

This is an urban love story based on a short novel named Adiliya by the River by Jin Renshun.

Wu Fang (Vicki Zhao) is a master's degree student in university, she always blind dates with different men. During each date, she orders a cup of green tea and tells the story about another close friend named Langlang. Wu Fang and Langlang believe that green tea can forecast a person’s love.

Chen Ming-liang (Jiang Wen), an experienced man, falls in love with Wu Fang. But later he meets Langlang, a piano player in the bar, who has the same face of Wu Fang but with an absolutely different character. That makes Chen fell into great confusion. Wu Fang and Langlang, what is the relation between them and whom Chen really loves the most?

Scene from the movie Green Tea (2003) - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Green Tea (2003) - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Green Tea (2003) - Review | KFCC
Scene from the movie Green Tea (2003) - Review | KFCC
Review

Green tea becomes more and more popular in western world as a healthy drink. It’s a bit bitter, but sends out a mystical fragrance. This movie is like a cup of green tea, or we can say, at least it "looks" like a cup of green tea. It is full of petty bourgeoisie flavors, which is becoming a very fashion theme in Chinese Mainland films. One of the 6th generation directors in China, Zhang Yuan, who got the best director award at the Venice Film Festival and the United Nations’ Peace Culture Prize, chose the theme of this kind for his latest movie.

AVANT-GUARD, yes, this is what the director wants to show from this movie, maybe a bit of Hitchcock’s style also. But because of this, unfortunately, the plot frame doesn’t have any creativities; the story is not strong enough to hold this style. No matter how good you are in logical inference, or you just have a bit of logic, you can guess the ending very easily even when you just reach the 1/3 of the movie. Maybe the reason is story itself, maybe the director thinks he can use its suspense to attract people, obviously, it is not a good idea.

Vicki Zhao is one of the bright spots in this movie. She acts Wu Fang, a mature and steady master student in the daytime; and in the evening, she becomes the charming girl Langlang in the bar, dissolute and uninhibited. Especially Wu Fang, although she always tells the story of another girl that makes her image a bit empty even pale in the whole story, Vicki Zhao breaks away from the comedy role that she usually created. Her acting is not perfect, but is at least successful. On the other hand, Jiang Wen’s acting disappoints us; he doesn’t make a lot of changes.

Another bright spot, the reason why I stay in front of the movie until the end, is the photography by Christopher Doyle. No doubt about the beautiful shots, the graceful background and the dazzling colors made this movie became a visual banquet. He is a master and a man full of amazing ideas. However, just photography is not a movie; the weak plot makes all these amazing images become boring.

This is a good try for Chinese Mainland commercial film; the high box office in China is the answer. But looking around the world, the development of Chinese film still has a long way to go ahead. For supporting Chinese commercial film, maybe you can prepare a cup of green tea, and appreciate this movie slowly.

Scene from the movie Green Tea (2003) - Review | KFCC
66
Story
Cast
Entertainment
Subtitles
Overall
Disi Hu December 20, 2003
Media Review
Media Review by
Disi Hu
Distributor
Guangzhou WA Video Product & Publish Ltd. Co.
Media Format
DVD
Region
All Region
Encoding
PAL

The image quality, Widescreen Letterboxed, is clear and free of scratches. The sound is a good Mandarin 5.1 and the DVD also feature English subtitle, even if the box doesn’t mention it. The subtitle are not burned, but unfortunately the timing of the subtitle is really fast and you will need to press Pause a couple of times to be able to read long sentences, which is annoying. The only extra consist of two extra trailers.