Indecision Becomes Her

It's 1948 in Qingdao, China, and while the People's Liberation Army is wrapping up the revolution and driving the Nationalist forces out of the country, the wealthy leisure classes are at a loss. Those who can flee have fled, but many are trapped by their wealth, unable to convert their art, real estate holdings, and companies into ready cash. Instead, they decide to stay behind and weather what they hope will be a mild political storm, rather than the raging inferno of political purges it turned out to be.

Into this tumult comes Fei (Xun Zhou), a young medical school student who lives a life of scholarly poverty until her father dies and she's summoned back to the Li family mansion. The product of a love affair between Master Li and a maid, Fei grew up with Master Li's full-blooded daughter, Ying (Vivian Wu), who will inherit everything if only her half sister returns home and signs her father's will.

First, Fei won't sign it. Then she decides to sign it. Then she changes her mind and decides not to sign it again. Finally, she decides to sign it, but then starts feeling funny about signing it and goes back and forth over it for a while. While she vacillates, there are a series of balls, dinners, and nights at the casinos, augmented by a depressingly literal voice-over that tells us exactly what she's thinking from second to second. Fei and Ying also fight over Mr. Huang (Zhiwen Wang), an older man who looks like a sad weasel, and there is a boxing match and an old lady sitting in a church. At the end of the movie, Fei says, "I finally understand that one shouldn't make bad choices." Agreed.