Yimou's reminder that Love's greatest power is most often found in the details is a profound and important one. We can't all be Anthony and Cleopatra, Jane Eyre and Edward Rochester, or Romeo and Juliet. Despite the unrealistic depictions of volcanic, all-consuming love that permeate our culture, few of us are called to love on a spectacular, melodramatic scale. In fact, many of us will show the greatness of our love not through the depth and power of our romanticism, but through the toils and joys of ordinary life.
Zhao Di's love means everything to her. In that way, she is a match for the greatest romantic heroines. But that love manifests itself in gentler, more human ways: a "little way" of Love to which we should all aspire.
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