Execution in Autumn

It's hard to pinpoint why a film apparently as simple as this should be so extraordinarily moving. The story couldn't be more direct: in Han Dynasty China, executions are confined to the autumn, and the selfish, brutal Pei finds himself in prison for eleven months, waiting for his sentence to be carried out. During that period he is inveigled into marrying, so that his wife can bear him an heir, and his character gradually begins to mellow. The film's real richness seems to lie in its web of undercurrents; the tangle of hopes, dreams, memories and desires that enmeshes the characters, sometimes almost tangible, sometimes elusive.