唐山大地震遺孤中俄混血兒李明（Mylène Jampanoï）前往陳教授（林棟甫）的植物園實習。雖然植物園是學習中草藥知識的世外桃源，性格乖張的陳教授卻不通情理，時常怒罵笨手笨腳的李明。李明即將放棄之際，多虧陳教授的女兒安安（李小冉）鼓勵，兩人也發展出氤氳靉靆的情愫。這時安安在西藏從軍的哥哥旦旦回家，令李明與安安的女同情誼發生危機。旦旦向李明求婚，李明卻希望與安安長相廝守、永不分離。兩人不為父權社會見容的禁忌愛情，在戴思杰東方主義式異色凝視下會如何收場？
Li Min (Mylène Jampanoï), an orphan since the Tangshan earthquake in 1976, of Chinese and Russian descent, goes to the Chinese botanist Professor Chen (Lin Dongfu)’s garden to work as his trainee. Although the Edenic garden is a haven for cultivating knowledge of Chinese herbal medicine, the curmudgeonly Professor Chen keeps scolding the clumsy Li Min. When Li Min is about to give up her apprenticeship, the botanist’s daughter An (Li Xiaoran) encourages her and they develop a “steamy” yet ambiguous relationship. Their lesbian love is disrupted by the homecoming of An’s brother Tan, a soldier stationed in Tibet. Tan proposes to Li Min while Li Min wishes to be “always together” with An. How will their forbidden love fare under Dai Sijie’s self-orientalizing and eroticizing gaze? |
