AKA: Perhaps Love.
Director: Peter Chan.
Language: Mandarin, Cantonese, English.
Release Year: 2005.
Rating: * * *1/2
Feeding my whim, I followed my last movie with another romantic fare starring the ridiculously adorable Xun Zhou. It’s no surprise that she left me enraptured, but can’t say the same about the movie, though. However, the movie isn’t bad at all. But if you jus take out the abovementioned gorgeous beauty, along with some other elements, from the whole equation, the movie would come across as yet another placid addition to the whole romance genre.
The movie is branched into two: Past and the present. In the present, Sun Na/Xiao Yu (Xun Zhou) is basking in the limelight of her cinematic success. With an auteur for a boyfriend, and barring her initial grind, her journey to the stardom wasn’t ever bound by despair and failure. With her boyfriend casting her in every movie he ever made, Sun never had to worry about her reputation, her fame and the influence she had on the masses. Success for her was being manufactured and manipulated on the editing table by her lover director.
However, in their latest musical project, and with a Hong Kong star as one of the two leads, Sun’s forced to revisit her morose past, which she walked away from 10 years ago, leaving someone heartbroken, betrayed and used. That someone is none other than the signed Hong Kong star Lin Jian-dang/ Zhang Yang (Takeshi Kaneshiro). To add to her misery, the story of this musical mirrors that of her own life, with some uncanny similarities in situations, characters, feelings involved and feelings smothered. Being an overly unyielding individual, putting on a swaggering facade, Sun denies acknowledging Lin’s presence. She keeps her acquaintance extremely platonic and professional. Being at the receiving end of such a heartless dame, lovelorn Lin can’t stand Sun’s deliberate ignorance. Despite his first few failed attempts, Lin pursues her relentlessly and with absolute intent.
Gradually, Lin’s agony and love for Sun manages to produce a rift in the cold shoulder she’s been giving him, compelling her to accept her past where he stood by her, always loving her with all his might, come hell or high water. Whereas, she put her ambition before him and love, ditching Lin twice for a shot at an acting career by clinging onto any director she set her eyes on. Lin would visit all the old places and memories they both were once a part of, hoping that she’d come back. Back in the present, Sun starts to accept her wrongdoings, and tries to do right by Lin. This development doesn’t go unnoticed by Sun’s present lover and the director of the musical Nie Wen (Jacky Cheung). Seeing red, he slips under the role of a circus master, the other lead of the musical. Through his scripted lines and songs, he conveys his hurt and disappointment. Sometimes, even going so far as changing the script on a whim, just to accommodate a scene where he'd lash out at Sun’s character in the musical, thereby letting out his own anger.
Stranded in a predicament, Sun carries on vacillating between the two men, unable to set her heart on one. The movie draws into the climax, with a grand finale scheduled for the musical where the verity of one’s love will be tested, decisions will be made and hearts will be broken. However, the end doesn’t quite tie it up completely, keeping it open for debate and room for interpretation. For me, though, the ending was quite clear, and the answers were deduced pretty easily.
Trying to shoehorn the musical genre in the telling of this rather decent love story, seemed out of place at times, and pretty deviating at others. The occasional and unwarranted breaking into opulent and colorful music and songs, were a little distracting, but it somehow managed to maintain the flow and the tone of the movie to an extent. The songs, obviously, brought out the inner demons, desires, affections and pain, which conventional dialogues couldn’t have. With brilliant choreography by our very own Farah Khan (something to boast about), decorating some nice, relevant, foot-tapping numbers, consummated by a gamut of opulent costumes, set pieces and execution, these royal-like ride was easy on the eyes, ears and extremely satiating. Since a better part of the movie is a musical, the score remained true to the intentions with which it was utilized, and complemented the whole offering by providing a uniquely delivered aspect to the movie.
However, I still feel that all the grandiose brought about by these musical numbers, somewhat hampered the overall beauty of the story; for me, at least. If I were to watch the whole movie without all the dance and songs, I might just enjoy it even more and rate it a tad higher. But, that’s not to say that all those songs were worthless. They were truly amazing and did a tremendous job at speaking the unspeakable. It’s the concoction of the two elements that didn’t quite go down well with me. The cinematography was on the brink of painting an exotic painting, riddled with moony images. Keep your eyes peeled for all the frames that were shot in the freezing-cold of Beijing, with intermittent snowing and a still view. Watching just two characters move around in this dead-silent setting with only the washed-out color of the snow, felt like a dream was materializing right before my eyes. The movie had many beautiful moments, which I always pine for in any romantic movie. The scenes may seem pretty ordinary when I mention them, but seeing them unfold on the screen, you’re bound to be mesmerized by it. For instance, Xun’s character has the habit of grinding her teeth in her sleep. At one point, after having shared an intimate moment, Lin’s character places his index finger right between her teeth to stop her making that sound, and she’s seen biting gently on the finger. It’s intensely romantic and downright adorable.
On the performance front, all the leads did justice to their part, and the polarizing effects that love and the lack of it that can have on a person. Takeshi was as handsome as he was a competent actor in his portrayal of the mourning lover. His character takes quite an abrupt turn at one key moment in the movie. But when his anger ebbs away, he realizes what a blunder he has made, and takes another sharp turn to right his wrongs. The following scene, with pin drop silence out in the frigid cold, with only a whisper of howling wind, and two people embracing like there’s no tomorrow, was one of the most beautiful highlights of the movie for me. Jacky Cheung’s portrayal of Nie Wen, with his quiet endurance at being a bystander, watching his love being snatched from him, was quite a tour de force. He played with his cards very close to his chest, and unraveling himself at decisive moments.
And as many have guessed by now, the bigger and the best part of the cake was taken by Xun Zhou. Firstly, I got to admit that her baritone-esque voice to me is sultrier than any siren. Moving over her sexy voice, the talent that she packs in is brilliantly underrated by her mean and lean looks. But beneath that non-descript exterior, exists one of the best actresses of our generation. She’s capable of pulling off every tricky emotion I’ve seen so far, and she does all that with her trademark calm and the entrancing beauty. Her character in the movie had to allude to several shades which, at times, could be termed pretty contemptible. Now, to evoke such extreme sentiments for such a beautiful lady does require transcendental talent in acting. Yet again, it’s she because of whom I’m awarding this movie more stars than it actually deserves. The movie might have worked for me if the two styles were made into two distinct movies, instead of producing the mélange which I quite couldn’t digest. However, Xun Zhou’s the only binding force that keeps the movie from falling apart and making a mess of it.
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