Zhang Yang's family comedy-drama tells a simple
and familiar story. After misinterpreting a message from his retarded
younger brother Er Ming (Jiang Wu) to mean that their father (Zhu Xu) is
dying, slick businessman Da Ming (Pu Cun Xin) comes down from the north
to visit them. While he finds his father to be in good health and
running the village bathhouse as smoothly as ever, other circumstances
force Da Ming to extend his visit longer than planned.
In spending time with his family, the family
business, and the second family that is the bathhouse's regular
customers, Da Ming learns that there's something valuable in this simple
life--perhaps more valuable than the material life he had been leading.
Shower is predictable and wears its heart on its
sleeve, and that's part of its charm; but while the film is unabashedly
sentimental, Zhang doesn't feel the need to bash the audience over the
head with melodramatic tactics. He simply lets the emotion of the story
come through in the performances, and the actors succeed wonderfully.
DVD:
List Price: US $30.95
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Price: US$13.95 Regions free
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3
Language:
Mandarin
Subtitle:
English / Traditional Chinese
Letter Box, Dolby Digital 5.1
Rating:
I - Suitable
for all audiences (roughly equal to an MPPA rating of
"G" or "PG") Films rated Category I
contain nothing most parents will consider offensive for
their children to see or hear. Nudity, drug use, explicit
language, violence and adult situations are largely
absent, and if present are seen only briefly and at a
moderate level.