Jia's tenderness for his characters is infused with a quiet rage: as the wide-screen views freeze them in a confining emptiness, dead zones of action and dialogue suggest a land where imagination itself has been suppressed.

It's a heartbreaking, beautiful movie that gains strength from its deep characterizations.

Its rewards come with patience and concentration.

... a Beijing of immigrants, figuratively and literally, as the employees have all come from the provinces and beyond. Yet as they wander across borders and cultures of this international Disneyland, they don’t seem to actually live anywhere.