This exquisitely soft-voiced, delicately toned, quietly powerful film from Chinese director Song Fang tells, not exactly the "story", but rather the precisely depicted situation of a young Beijing filmmaker named Lin Tong. She’s just broken up with her boyfriend and moved to a new apartment, a fact she can’t seem to confess to her parents or her best friend. But she tells a colleague in Tokyo, during one of the several excursions (the others to Niigata, Hong Kong, Nanjing) that give this meticulously ordered film its soft rhythms.

Song is interested in exploring the inner life of a woman through precisely observed external signs: watch the flowers, plants, trees, and butterflies for a constantly modulating commentary on and reflection of Lin Tong’s inner turmoil. And Song has found a perfect creative partner in actress Qi Xi, whose subtly graded expressions and posture – just observe the various ways she seems to refract ambient light - speak emotional volumes.