Shower

viewed April 28, 2000 at the AMC Kabuki 

For full information about this film, click here

A film brimming with cuteness and nostalgia, it seems poised to take over the role of the biennial foreign film antiquarian sleeper hit held by such international hits like The Postman and Shall We Dance. Taking place in one of the endangered bathhouses that used to be a staple of Chinese communities, the story features the successful but disaffected professional returning home to his aging father and retarded brother who happily run the bathhouse for an aging cast of regulars.  The old Chinese guys are fun to watch as they clean themselves, play chess and duel with crickets.  The retarded guy is the most fun of all, with his simpleton pathos and uncomprehending innocence in the face of brutal modernization.  The episodic plot does hold one surprise in the middle -- a completely unexpected lyric passage set in a mythical desert landscape, where a family barters wheat for water in order to bathe their daughter on the eve of her marriage.  It's still schmaltzy but at least it catches one off guard.  The rest is a bath in familiar bittersweet waters.

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