Yu is an experienced and most talented actress. But the real surprise here is how well the non-pros -- Bater, a Mongolian herdsman, and Sen'ge, an equestrian -- perform.

| Sep 23, 2020

The weight of the performances from Yu Nan and Bater is enough to make for a satisfying, if uneven, film.

| Nov 24, 2011

A refusal to pass judgment and a palpable chemistry between the actors ensure that the film succeeds both as a fable about the pitfalls of rapid modernisiation, and as tough, unsentimental drama.

| Nov 17, 2011

This 2006 drama is refreshing not only for its gentle comic touches but for director Wang Quanan's refusal to sentimentalize China's vanishing nomadic culture: life is harsh and no one's a saint, including his outspoken heroine.

| Dec 9, 2008

Made with a scrupulous attention to the slow-moving realities of grasslands life but lacking in dramatic heft.

| Oct 18, 2008

| Original Score: A- | Oct 18, 2008

[Yu Nan] owns the role of Tuya, delivering a wide-ranging performance that might be called 'star-making' if she didn't already suggest the confidence of an established star.

Full Review | Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 29, 2008

Director Wang Quan'an shows us a China of contrasts and in transition, where a life of traditional farming is harder than ever to sustain while life in the nearest city includes nice hotels, decent health care and good schools.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 22, 2008

For those who are still reeling from the forced exuberance of Mamma Mia! but have room for one more film about a woman with multiple suitors, may I recommend Tuya's Marriage?

| Original Score: 3/4 | Aug 22, 2008

A strong addition to the burgeoning canon of China's so-called Sixth Generation filmmakers.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Jun 20, 2008

Tuya's Marriage is thoroughly gratifying in its consistent inventiveness and has a grasp of human nature so universal that there's no feeling of the exotic about the film and its people.

| Original Score: 5/5 | May 23, 2008

It is a fine and plaintive experience, more modern-day folklore than ethnographic study, and a wonderfully assured piece of cinema.

Full Review | Original Score: 3.5/4 | Apr 24, 2008

Tuya's Marriage has enough material to supply an entire year of a soap opera -- in Inner Mongolia, that is.

| Original Score: 2.5/4 | Apr 4, 2008

A compact near-masterpiece that combines a slow-motion romantic comedy with a docudrama-style portrait of a remote, nomadic culture as it is gradually eroded by the tides of the 21st century.

| Apr 4, 2008

Tuya's Marriage finds an austere beauty in a landscape of scrub and grassland ringed by forbidding slate-blue mountains.

Full Review | Original Score: 4/5 | Apr 4, 2008

[Director Wang Quan] still maintains an emotional remove from his subject, tracing the encroaching will of capitalism-as in the evolution from horses to motorcycles to cars-more clinically than poetically.

Full Review | Apr 2, 2008

Tuya's Marriage can feel a tad overwritten, but in terms of its cultural and emotional portraits, the film's neo-realist authenticity is nonetheless striking.

| Original Score: 3/4 | Mar 31, 2008