"Crossing Over"

(China-Japan-Hong Kong)

A Tianjin Film Studio (China)/New Wave Co. (Japan)/Xinhua Media Group (Hong Kong) production. Produced by Tsuguhiko Kadokawa, Cai Guanshan, Huang Jianxin. Executive producers, Han Hongfei, Cai Guanshan, Shirley Kao. Supervising producers, Kiichi Nakai, Kao, Naoyuki Sakagami. Directed by Jin Chen. Executive director, Zang Qiwa. Screenplay, Shen Jie; story, Jin.
 
With: Kiichi Nakai, Miao Pu, Guo Tao, Yu Ailei, Sun Qingqing, Lu Deliang, Yang Kexin, Zhao Qianzi, Li Yang, Liu Dan, Zhang Yibai.

A pared-down love story set in a mixed prison across 40 years, "Crossing Over" ultimately doesn't succeed as a whole but shows the same impressive visual precision and metaphysical bent that marked helmer Jin Chen's sophomore outing, "Chrysanthemum Tea." Highly stylized, but only building an emotional head of steam in its closing reel, over-episodic pic, inspired by a true story, is largely of interest for Asian film weeks.

Ethnically Japanese but raised in China, Liu Lang (Kiichi Nakai, who also produced) is jailed in 1914 for crippling a guy who harrassed his wife. In stir, he befriends another lifer, the mercurial Liang (Guo Tao, "Crazy Stone"), but meanwhile he starts an almost wordless, slow-burning friendship with a femme convict, Zhou Hong (Miao Pu, "Cherries"), who murdered her abusive husband. With little to live for, both find succor in each other's pain, exchanging looks and minimal dialogue across the decades as China lurches from one government to another. Guo's insouciant perf leavens the drama, but there's a lack of chemistry between Miao and the stiff Nakai. Production values are tops. Pic is also known as "Phoenix," its Chinese title.

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