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Fans of Chinese film rejoice: Gong Li is back. Star of the mainland-Chinese classic Raise the Red Lantern, Gong Li took a break from acting to live as a housewife in Singapore for the past few years. But with the contemporary drama Zhou Yu's Train, she returns to the screen in a familiar role: the dreamy, ethereal beauty drowning in doomed love. Gong Li's sculpted cheekbones and anguished eyes are up to the task, but the self-conscious Zhou Yu's Train never quite manages to pull out of the station.

Gong Li plays Zhou Yu, a young artist. On a business trip to the city of Chongyang, Zhou meets the shy poet Chen Ching, played by Tony Leung Ka-fai (the other Tony Leung). Chen falls in love with Zhou because, well, she's played by Gong Li, and Zhou falls in love with Chen because he's a sensitive poet. Zhou travels twice a week by train to meet Chen, who rarely leaves his library. Zhou spends so much time on the train that the sound of the wheels and the spinning scenery dominate her memories; director Sun Zhou superbly evokes the feel of a train in motion, passing through daylight as in a waking dream.

Unfortunately, Sun decides to turn what could have been a pleasant love story into a perplexing meditation on identity, reality and commuting. At times Zhou Yu's Train feels like a parody of an art film, complete with slow-motion shots of a melancholy Gong Li. Not even the charming presence of Sun Hong-Lei as a love-struck veterinarian who tries to persuade Zhou to dismount her iron horse can save the film's stalled second act. It's good to have Gong Li back, but here's hoping her next director stays on track. Anyone know what Zhang Yimou is up to?

• Bryan Walsh
• Gong Li returns to the screen in Zhou Yu's Train