Cinema: Shower

Mainland Chinese films are familiar by now: period melodramas with a lot of court intrigue and fabulous silk frocks. So here’s a switch: a modern comedy that trumpets its breeziness from its first shots, of a man stepping into a newfangled street stall that gives his body a sort of car wash. The rest, set in a failing Beijing bathhouse, is a genial study of family collision and reconciliation: the yuppie (Pu Cunxin) with his aged dad and slow-witted brother (Jiang Wu). The film is almost too ingratiating (How many times will you hear a fat Chinese guy sing O sole mio? One too many), but it has a nice mourning tone for the old days and ways devoured by the new. Take this Shower and feel refreshed; it’s a cool dip on a hot day.

–By Richard Corliss