Xiang ri kui 2005

Jeannette Catsoulis, New York Times: Like Douglas Sirk without the throw pillows, Sunflower is a shamelessly old-fashioned melodrama performed with such sincerity that resistance is futile. Read more

Jeff Shannon, Seattle Times: The film's father-son friction grows occasionally repetitious, but it springs from a sensitive, well-written melodrama that earns its emotions with tender sincerity. Read more

Jan Stuart, Newsday: Paging John O'Hara. One would have to reach back to those melodramatic family potboilers of the '50s to find such an unfettered blast of guilt-tripping and misdirected love. Read more

Jason Anderson, Globe and Mail: Sunflower succeeds as both a moving family drama and a microcosm of China's social history since the 1970s. Read more

Derek Elley, Variety: The most conventional, but paradoxically the deepest felt and most emotionally affecting, of mainland Chinese helmer Zhang Yang's four pics. Read more

Julia Wallace, Village Voice: Sunflower plays less like the epic it aspires to be than an episode of Full House: Beijing. Read more