Shower (China, 1999) ****

ShowerShower is a gentle, slow pace, Chinese film, about the intricate and fragile cobweb that make a family. Sentimental at times, yet never overemotional, it follows the story of an elder son, coming back home to visit his older dad and mentally-challenged brother, who together take care of a family-run bathhouse in Beijing. Subplots include other aspects of relationships such as marriage and friendship, all fragments loosely held together by the bathhouse and the father and son who run it. As the bath-water slowly penetrate walls of isolation, the elder son is able to change perspective and come to terms with his past and, ultimately, accept responsibility for the present.