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Set in 1920s colonial Indochina, a pretty, virginal French teenager (Jane March) embarks on a reckless and forbidden romance with a handsome Chinese playboy (Tony Leung Ka Fai), each knowing that knowledge of their affair will bring drastic consequences to each other.
The worst part of the dialog is given to the writer. She has to say one pedantic line after another, and overall, the narrator's part is just too wordy.
Too bad that the film is marred by the vices of international productions, as it deals with issues seldom shown in American movies, such as the power of sexuality.
Stylish if somewhat tedious study of a young Vietnamese woman who falls under the spell of an older dandy.
March 14, 2003
Chicago Sun-Times
Annaud and his collaborators have got all of the physical details just right, but there is a failure of the imagination here; we do not sense the presence of real people behind the attractive facades of the two main actors.