MovieChat Forums > Yi He Yuan (2007) Discussion > Wow... Great Film, Just One Question...

Wow... Great Film, Just One Question...

posted 17 years ago by IncognitoG
7 replies | jump to latest

*SPOILER ALERT*

At the end, Zhou Wei asks Yu Hong if she knows where to buy the beer. She says yes, and leaves to retrieve it. Some time passes, and we see Zhou Wei deep in thought. We know what eventually happens...

When I left the theater, I thought he left because a deep understanding moved him. But then I realized something.

She was gone for some time, and when he blew by her on the road, it looked like she was all the way back where he picked her up.

He did ask here if she knew where to buy the beer. I assumed it was some store across the street. But she was gone for quite a while. Does anyone think he might have left, because he thought she wasn't coming back? Or is my imagination running wild...

This was quite a moving picture btw, felt the length was fine.

[–] bccbc 17 years ago

He did ask her if she knew where to buy the beer. I assumed it was some store across the street. But she was gone for quite a while. Does anyone think he might have left, because he thought she wasn't coming back? Or is my imagination running wild...

He could have. It certainly did look like she left. I was also kind of wondering about that.

[–] qiwei-uk 16 years ago

This only reflects that their love story is a tragedy. She walked towards the High Way service station she works, she does have some plastic bags with her, probably wine (what he wanted) inside. I could only assume she made up her mind and walked away from him, and wanted to embrace her normal life. She's had too much of a troubled life.

[–] HunterXtreme 16 years ago

IMHO I think the reason why he left is because the girl is no longer the same one he longed for. Buy beer? Her old self would have lusted over him and insist on sex, much less walk all the way to the station to get beer.

[–] tinymortal 16 years ago

Finally saw this movie last night! Wow. I will offer my understanding of the end: i think it's really just the director's meditation on love.

There is such a silent tangible tension that swells every on-screen moment once Zhou Wei and Yu Hong are reunited. The scene when they are down at the water front is incredible...

They go back to his apt [or hotel room] and try to reembark on their relationship - but it's impossible. They have both spent the last decade [or more?] idealizing their relationship and also that time of their lives - youth, love, etc. They can't reconnect...they are no longer the young fearless college kids they once were...

Zhou and Yu are intensely complicated individuals whose connection profoundly affected both characters. But they are also dreamers who have idealized their past. I think they both want what they can't have. I wonder if Zhou chasing her pushed Yu Hong away?

It's like earlier in the film when Zhou is still in Germany and the german woman asks him if he has a girlfriend. And he answers Yes. "In china?" He answers vaguely - "Perhaps." He's obviously referring to Yu - but an idealized Yu Hong - one that may or may not exist very far away... As in, far away physically? Emotionally?

The moment they agree that she will go get the booze, you can just tell she's going to leave and never come back.

It's like they've chosen different paths in life, so they have to pass each other by. I thought it was an entirely different day at the end of the movie. Zhou had to pass Yu Hong.

[–] StzaCrack 15 years ago

agreed.
she was never planning on coming back to the room.
that's why she insisted on being the one to get the drinks.
this whole film left me emotionally exhausted, but in a good way.
one of the few times i was actually hoping for a happy, 'hollywood ending'.

too smart to fight, too smart to kill

[–] dinaia 15 years ago

She was the one who left. Her reasons? I believe each viewer may have some explanation, some insight.

I took it as a refusal of normalcy. She idealized love for the sake of love and he was the embodiement of her idea of it. But in her mind (and in the mind of others) love is pain, love is a wound, so you need obstacles and suffering (like her crazyness and jealousies from college) to keep the beauty and poetry alive. So after 12-13 years they see each other again but reconnecting, speaking, rejoicing, making love seemed too much like a normal happy ending for her. Equal to an ending of love and she didn't want that. And when she got her cue (him mentioning drinks in the middle of her inner turmoil) she left to preserve her love.

[–] evison_mark 9 years ago

yes, completely agreed. They both knew she was leaving from the hotel - he was close to tears while asking if she knew where the shop was.
When she was walking on the bridge i was thinking ‘go back, go back', but knew she wouldn't.. I don't think it was wine in the bag, just some provisions she'd taken on the journey back to the petrol station.. and maybe Zhou drove back via there to prove himself right and help himself see it was finally over.. and/ or fate meant she also saw it was over for him, as well as her.

Excellent film. A tale of tortured souls that nevertheless carry on with life, while the spirit of their ill-fated love swirled around. I guess we saw the most intersting parts of their lives...

In my top 5-10 of Chinese movies (with To Live at the top)