The Botanist

Jing has a knack for capturing the beauty of bucolic living, especially when you’re still young like Arsin and receptive to nature’s embrace. But the world of the film can seem so ethereal that it often risks slipping through our fingers.

Humanity’s tender, fraught relationship with the natural world has a storied history on film, but in “The Botanist,” it can sometimes feel like an unearned shortcut to grazing the sublime.

While “The Botanist” resists traditional storytelling, the coming-of-age and romance at its center keep it grounded, preventing it from becoming overly abstract. The beauty of the scenery and the realism in the presentation work in the same direction.

A paean to nature which overflows with bucolic imagery but soon runs dry on cohesive narrative, The Botanist nonetheless marks an auspicious debut for writer-director Jing Yi.