Review of Wonderful Town (2007) by May W — 25 Feb 2009

If you know your Asian cinema, it's a little Jia Zhang-ke in its site-specifics, a little bit Tsai Ming-Liang in its moist intimacies and cavernous, water-damaged spaces (there's even a watermelon cameo), but generally gentler than either: one of only two missteps Assarat makes here is a moped montage set to a treacly love song.

Otherwise, it's an airy proposition, susceptible to changes of currents and tides, which stretches back, takes in the view and - up until a last-reel act of violence that throws the whole slightly off-kilter - finds something worthwhile and cherishable in the calm after the storm.