Of late, most Chinese films fall in one of two categories: the flashy blockbuster or the intellectual art-house flick (in the main, aimed at the foreign film festival market). You and Me is no blockbuster, nor is it another dreary grab for offshore recognition. This film pleases both domestic and Western audiences. Produced on a small budget, You and Me relates the conflicting coexistence between a sharp, elderly widow and her young, bullheaded tenant. The deceptively simple plot – the landlady rents her dilapidated Beijing siheyuan for an excessive fee to the student – takes place in a single locale over four seasons, and is devoted to the pair’s daily clash of wills (wonderfully illustrating the Chinese saying: ‘two tigresses cannot stay on the same mountain’). Ma draws on her own experience as a student at the Central Drama Academy in the 1990s, and the story is full of deadpan humor, sparks of tension and bursts of non-contrived emotions. There are no extravagant twists or cliff-hangers here; the accent is on detail (despite the limited budget the film is exquisitely lit). You and Me may not have earned millions in box office receipts, but it does prove that a simple human story is at the heart of good filmmaking.
Beijing Film Studio

(c) that's Shanghai Magazine
Chief editor: Steven Crane
June 2006 issue



(c) that's PRD
PRD Chief editor: Christopher Cottrell
June 2006 issue