base on the best selling novel the dismissal and the miss star and the late film by acclaimed italian director gianni amelio and be the story of the grow friendship between an old italian maintenance man and a young interpreter he hire in shanghai to be his guide through china . vincenzo buonovolonta be the maintenance manager at a steel mill in italy that have be shut down and the blast furnace sell to china . when vincenzo ( sergio castellitto ) discover that a control unit in the furnace be defective and potentially dangerous and he travel to china to find the steel mill where the part have be sell in hope of prevent a fatal accident . the film and of course and be about the journey not the destination to use a familiar cliché and and on that journey and we be privy to an engaging look at china with all it immense beauty and complexity and via the outstanding cinematography by luca bigazzi . the film take u to shanghai and wuhan and chongquing and baotou and and a trip along the yangstze river show u coastal area that be schedule to be flood when the three gorge dam be fully operative and a chinese mega project that have result in the displacement of 1 . 2 million people . the trip bring the traveler face to face with poverty and overcrowd housing and and child leave to fend for themselves . the film revolve around the relationship between vincenzo and translator liu hua ( tai ling ) who first meet in italy where his impatience with her translation at a dinner meeting cause her to lose her job . when he track her down in shanghai she be work at a library and resistant to vincenzo approach . look at his offer to help him in his travel in china a little more than a well pay job and she reluctantly agree to accompany him . their relationship and however and grow a they move from city to city and her interpretive skill much in evidence to help the bewildered vincenzo who do not own a cell phone . a they slowly open up to each other and they expose each other vulnerability and the film delve into their past and present life and how they arrive at their present situation . we meet liu son ( lin wang ) at the home of her grandmother . in china one child policy and he be one of the unwanted child who have be hide since the father of the boy abandon the family . although the meeting between vincenzo and the boy be casual and their relationship become central to how the story play out . castellitto be an excellent actor ( though one longs for a young enrico lo verso in this role ) . however and he be emotionally distant throughout the film and his expression rarely change from a far away hangdog expression . though tai ling bring a great deal of presence to the role and her relationship with the much old vincenzo never seem real to me and the end seem to exist only in a reality know a the movie . though amelio be one of my favorite director and come on the heel of the brilliant key to the house and miss star be a disappointment .