Epic study of tragic life of Chinese author

THE brief, tragic and eventful life of the Chinese poet and author Xiao Hong is examined in detail by director Ann Hui in The Golden Era, a three-hour film that dutifully records the minutiae of 1930s life among China's literary elite without delving too deeply into the mind of its main character - failing as a result to lift the veil on a complex, fascinating persona.

The movie's intentions are made clear from the opening scene, in which Xiao Hong (played with unaffected intensity by Tang Wei) speaks directly to the camera and matter-of-factly announces the dates of her birth and death. We learn right away that she doesn't make it past 31, and that her story is narrated by a dead person walking.

A cast of supporting characters - friends and acquaintances - is introduced in similar docu-style, each with his or her version of events. They tell of someone who drifts along with the historical currents while simultaneously struggling to survive in a society that shunned her at first, yet who managed to make a name for herself as a lyrical writer of childhood memories, hard truths and tortured lives.