Don't Go Breaking My Heart
★★★☆☆Is Love Really That Simple?
Just came back from the opener and the "world premiere" of the latest romatinc comedy from directorial partners Johnnie To and Wai Ka-fai at the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival.
The story in "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" is basically right out of the romantic comedy cookbook, revolving around a growing romantic triangle between the characters Gao Yuanyuan (who played Zixin), Louis Koo (who played Shenran), and Daniel Wu (playing Qihong). Oh, and there is a frog in the movie which steals the scene every time.
The big story is the fact that it is mostly in Mandarin, but starring Hong Kong actors, in a Hong Kong setting, by a Hong Kong director (shock!). What is this? Is Hong Kong cinema about to return to its Mandarin-language past? Oh AND the songs used in the film are also...in Mandarin? Also what's with their very very Chinese names...?No offense to the 1 billion audience in Mainland market. But this trend may further fragments the Hong Kong declining film industry.
Thank God the movie manages to keep its Hong Kong style of humor and local flavours. There are a number of laughs throughout and it also manages to keep us guessing which of the two leading men Zixin would end up right until the very end. But Zixin's indecisiveness between the two men, going back and forth, has provoked frustration than care for her choice.
While it may seem like a character study of all three, they are however all excessively whiny, and sometimes needy, wanting things to go their way, and requiring the others to follow them. We never get to really know who they are, enough to care about their lives. The story is sometimes quite jumpy and implausible, esp, how Louis Koo's character proposed to marry Gao Yuanyuan suddenly when they haven't even gone out for a first date yet!
Daniel Wu is, as always, goodlooking and likable enough for everyone to root for him (especially after he shaves). Gao Yuanyuan, in her first leading role in a Hong Kong film, probably needed a meatier role than this one, having to play a character gone neurotic when realizing she's out of her own comfort zone. Louis Koo is the charming and goofy womanizer and always manages to woo us into siding him. Compared to To's previous comedies, the leading characters don't seem "middle class" anymore, they are indeed "the upper class", fulfilling a high class fantasy for love in Hong Kong.
Some scenes are cute and profound, while most of the time overlong and not particularly exciting. Still, the performance of the cast failed to steer the film out of its self-indulgence, deciding just to run on the spot rather than to move the story along. I was entertained throughout, and I appreciated Johnnie To's purposeful backdrop of the financial crisis in the city, and his return to city/office romance, and the cafe habitu/pacific coffee setting, and his mastery in repetition-variation style in humor (apparent in the office building window scenes).
It is a good date-night movie, but it never aspires to be anything more. And it doesn't have to, I guess. I would really like to love this film as I did with his earlier works, such as Needing You, Love on a Diet, My Left Eye Sees Ghost, but still, it is a solid effort and a fun romantic comedy.
Pictures from HKIFF Opening Night and Meet-the-Cast session:
(From 3rd to the right: Director Wai Ka-fai, Actor Daniel Wu, and Actor Louis Koo)
(From 2nd to Right: Director Wai Ka-fai, Actor Daniel Wu, Actor Louis Koo, Actor Terence Yin, Actress Gao Yuanyuan, Actress J.J. Jia, and Actress Selena Li)
3 "memorable" events at the Film Festival:
1. The movie was supposed to start at 7:15, but we waited until 7:20, 7:25, and 7:30...what the heck? We got so bored staring at the "No Smoking", "No Food/Drink", and "No Phone" signs projected on the screen...
2. The director and the cast members were not only late but also only showed up for a split seconds before disappearing to backstage or wherever they came from. Well, I would say it was nice that we get to see them...even just for a few seconds.
3. When the movie started, this is when the horror of FLASHES suddenly began!!!!
Apparently, some guy was taking photographs with flash lights on from the left side. So while we were watching the movie, there would be a sudden strong flash coming from wherever whenever.
And then he would disappear for a while. We would be okay until the flashes RETURNED from the right side. WTF? Turns out he moved to the other side and continued with his flash lights...so as to make sure every single audience would be FLASHED!
let's hope the film festival would get better later on.
