The Summer in Nanjing

 Derek ELLEY is Senior Film Critic of the U.S.-based entertainment trade paper "Variety," which has been covering the international film business for over 100 years. Born in London, Elley has been writing about East Asian cinema for over 35 years, especially Chinese-language films, and has arranged numerous seasons both in the U.K. and elsewhere. In 1998, he co-founded the Far East Film Festival, in Udine, Italy, devoted to mainstream Asian movies. He has been visiting China regularly, both for business and pleasure, for over 20 years.

A straight-arrow yarn about a childless couple reunited by a young kid, "The Summer in Nanjing" occasionally tips into melodrama but largely hews to a simple, unaffected style that allows the main performances to gently ripen. Though the first name among the two co-directors is experienced journeyman Jin Liangyuan, the main creative force is that of actor Yu Junhao ("Night Raid"), who adapted his own novel, takes the lead role and even line produced. Young people\'s fests could warm to this one. Yu plays He Nanjing, a coach driver in Nanjing whose marriage is under strain as he and his wife, primary school teacher Wei Li (Sun Qing), are still childless after seven years of marriage. She suggests they amicably divorce, and even moves out for the time being. Then, one day, he ends up helping to look after a young boy, Tongtong (Zhang Zhikang), after the tyke\'s single mom (Jin Yuqian) is arrested on his coach for carrying drugs. Direction and lensing show an unforced feel for quotidien life in the heat of summertime Nanjing, and relationships too. Yu is rather wooden, but Sun is simpatico as the wife.

By Derek Elley