Mei Chang

A small film that registers deeply, reminds me of “Howard’s End” decades ago. Beautifully and so efficiently made. Two minutes in and the canvas was sketched out. The expert acting needs no elaboration on my part, even peripheral characters flesh out the whole picture: about archaeology, grace of a bygone lifestyle, the looming war and the fragility of everything, life’s final act—attained so determinedly yet so gently.... It positively makes a lot of the movies now nominated for various Oscars adolescent or pretentious.