MOVIE REVIEW: "DON'T GO BREAKING MY HEART 2". 单身男女 2

“DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART 2″ (2014)

Movie Review. 单身男女 2

Hong Kong is well-known for movie quickies.Whenever and wherever there’s a successful formula, just get ready to shoot a sequel, and then some.

There’s a perpetual drought of bright ideas everywhere, so it is safer to stick to one concoction that’s proven right and expound on it, rather than to shoot bullets in the dark.

“DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART 2″ is one fine example.

This 2011 romantic comedy returns with a resounding gong, adding MIRIAM YEUNG and VIC CHOU onto the stable of leads. Naturally, it is equipped with a brand new sub-plot. What else?

“DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART 2″ is Hong Kong director Johnnie To’s vivid continuation of his 2011 money-churning rom-com.

He adds MIRIAM YEUNG and VIC CHOU to the goodlooking threesome of LOUIS KOO, DANIEL WU and GAO YUAN YUAN. You just have to take your pick.

A QUICK SYNOPSIS

As soon as  playboy investment banker Shen Ran (LOUIS KOO) loses Zixin (GAO YUAN YUAN) to a brawny hunk of an architect, he conveniently swings back  to his notorious life as a incorrigible womanizer.

He starts bedding every girl that crosses his path until he finally settles for stock market specialist Yang Yang (MIRIAM YEUNG), a lusty sophisticate.

Unbeknownst to Shen Ran, his old flame Zixin suddenly appears.

Coincidentally, Zixin’s slightly older brother Paul has developed a hippo crush for power woman Yang Yang.

Now confusion and chaos set in.

At first Yang Yang mistakes Paul to be Zixin’s fiance and rejects his advances.

But she finally discovers the truth on Zixin’s wedding day and has to make a tough decision about her own pairing.

What would you do with fickle-minded women?

Shen Ran, in the meantime, arises from his stupor to realize that his love for Zixin has never died and determines to woo her back at all costs.

This is as stupid as you can get, because you don’t simply go and break up a devoted couple.

In summary, this movie is an entertaining farce not to be taken seriously.

However much two lovebirds might share, it’s what they don’t know about each other that rejuvenates their relationship. 

That’s the best part.

Right.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

LOCAL DISTRIBUTOR:  GSC MOVIES

MOVIE REVIEW :” BUT ALWAYS” 一生一世 (2014) HONG KONG

” BUT ALWAYS” 一生一世 (2014) MOVIE REVIEW

Love is a many-splendored thing, is it not?

“BUT ALWAYS” the film tracks a 3-decade old love--hate relationship, a break-and-mend romance that metaphorically, sails the stormy seas with you, tagging along an emotional baggage.

It peaks and ebbs through events from a tumultuous 1972 ( in Beijing) to a modernistic 2001. (in New York).

 An Ran (GAO YUAN YUAN) and Zhao Yongyuan (NICHOLAS TSE) are the protagonists in this tortuous romance.

The path of true never do run smooth, they will show you.

This is a rags-to-riches story, about a gawky hawker establishing himself from scratch to be  a successful entrepreneur.

Thanks to first-time director SNOW ZOU, the film skips the beat when it comes to explanations in most parts. You are left to do the guessing yourself.

The movie focuses on the fact that, even if you have achieved greater success, endowed with all the material trappings, life would still be inadequate.

You need love to complete the equation. Yes!

“BUT ALWAYS” is a haunting touch-your-soul movie. despite artistic flaws.

The pace is emotionally uplifting with a grim reminder that LIFE CAN BE WONDERFUL, only if we allow it to be.

YES, there’s no  such thing as permanence. We should live for the moment.

Living and dying is a rite of passage, a journey in this world, the very moment we are born.

And when it is time to part, everything is sweet sorrow, ripping your well-being apart.

It’s heartbreaking when it is time to bid adieu to someone who have always cared and loved you through the long years.

And who had stood by you through the test of time.

Here, I have more or less cracked the main plot of “BUT ALWAYS”.

The movie is about life, love, death and memories.

I cannot remember where I have picked up this sad poem:

” …  where would you go
that i cannot follow?
for how long must i wait
until we meet again?

what would i do
in times that i miss you?
where would i go
in times when i long to see you again?
how must i spend
the nights without you?

how do i bear
each morning that you’re not there?
shall i ever smile again?
will i ever laugh again?
will i ever face the world again
knowing that im not alone?

why must you leave me?
why must i cry these tears
when you’re not here
to wipe them all away?
why must i suffer
the empty days without my beloved?

why must i dream
without you by my side?
the days shall never be the same again
i will never be the same again … “

There is a quiet serenity and beauty in death.

But alas, in “BUT ALWAYS” the film director loses his ball-bearing on a disjointed script and weak lines that somehow, tend to irk rather than endear.

The pairing of NICHOLAS TSE and GAO YUAN YUAN saves the day. They are a pleasure to watch and they justify their roles.

“BUT ALWAYS” seems modeled on a 1996 “Comrades, Almost a Love Story” which depicts two mainland Chinese migrants who attract and repulse each other on separate journeys through Hong Kong and New York.

“BUT ALWAYS” refers to screen characters Anran and Yongyuan who are fated to be together, as much as they are doomed to be apart.

You be the better judge for the rest.

This is a Bitter-Sweet ROMANCE that will stir you. 

And you might CRY your HEART out the moment you leave the cinema floor.

RATING: 3.5 out of 5

Local Distributor: GSC MOVIES

“DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART” (單身男女) Movie Review. True LOVE is always FIZZY, FROGGY and BITTER-SWEET. Right?

“DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART” (單身男女) PRESS PREVIEW

“DON’T GO BREAKING MY HEART” tries, unashamedly to extol all virtues of what a true love should be. It does work, to a point.

It also brandishes an emotive title that’s typically “old school”.

This is the film’s positioning.

We are led to believe that love is often precariously sweet, yet saccharine baffling.

The path of true love does not run smooth.

Enter-as-you-dare and as everyone would surely do at some point in life, love is addictive, liken to fornicative sex where each participant shares his pleasurable form of connecting.

See, you now have your cake and eat it.

This long-anticipated Mandarin feature bills Hong Kong heart throbs DANIEL WU, LOUIS KOO and introduces unknown doe-eyed mainland actress GAO YUAN YUAN to the rest of Asia.

JOHNNIE TO and WAI KA-FAI grills this loving piece on the BBQ pit with such tender care that’s bound to leave you with a thin coat of tangy aftertaste, long when the credits are rolling and the lights are up.

So is it any good?

Come on, it’s time to move in with the flow.

Let’s start with love is “fizzy”. Daniel Wu is Fang, a disillusioned architect who hits the fizzy bottle once too often to free himself from reality. He sports a disheveled demeanor, is bearded and shaggy.

He saves Zixin (Gao Yuan Yuan) from being run down by an oncoming vehicle and they become fast friends. With the utmost gratitude, Zixin presents Fang with an ugly pet frog, courtesy of her ex boy friend who had dumped her.

So love is “froggy” here. The puffy pet frog becomes their “symbol” of a growing bond.

Zixin has her dreamy moods, on days when she cannot focus on her work. She “interacts” with her “opposite” neighbor Cheng (Louis Koo) from across the opposite building on the same level , using colourful Post-it notes affixed on their respective windows.

The gentle art of window communication, a la ‘seduction’ goes on … and on.

Cheng is a financial whiz kid, a cad, a dandy, a playboy who’s attracted to the ever-silly Zixin, simply because she’s “different” from the regular brood of gals he brings easily to his bed.

He’s rich and he stashes a colorful assortment of condoms in his car "just-in-case".

One fine day the entire global market crashes and things take a different toll.

Cheng moves out of the opposite building and Fang quietly disappears from the scene, and with everybody gone, life for Zixin hits a rut.

Fast zoom to three years later when Cheng returns abruptly to become Zixin’s boss and Fang also does a popping up exercise. This is at the convenience of the scriptwriter.

Our lovey-go-round commences once more, this time on a more heated plateau.

The plot tarries back and forth expanding on this exasperating love triangle with both Cheng and Fang each trying to convince Zixin of their undying devotion.

Which guy bags the gal in the end?

Zixin starts as a loser in love and ends up ensnaring two rich and successful suitors. Her star shines.

Cheng is a bad boy who’s self-assured, conceited and has the perpetual roving eye. He’s a wolf and will alway be one.

Fang is down-to-earth, wears his heart on his sleeve, has a steely presence, and would be the type every gal would love to bring back to mama.

Let’s say it’s simple to put someone on a weighing scale and measure him.

But it is impossible to measure this human quality we call the heart.

Metaphorically speaking, it’s not just the size of the man in any fight. It is the size of the fight in the man.

The one lesson this film tells us is that being in love doesn’t mean that everything in that person has to be perfect. It means you have to look beyond his imperfections.

Having drawled on this, it’s easy to deduce who’s the eventual guy who will win the fair lady’s heart.

To sum up this building-to-building office romance, it will be apt to use this line:

“The most beautiful view is the one I share with you.”

I’ll honestly vouch for this one.