I saw my first full-length Chinese movie in a theater last night, "Leaving Me, Loving You" (unless that should be translated "Leaving Me Loving You"). I was duped into going by some friends who said they were going to "The Return of the King" (which is actually showing in English and whose Chinese title is "King of the Ring: The King Comes Back/Will Come"). When we arrived at the theater, the two girls who had gone ahead to buy tickets said, "Oh, we didn't think the choice was settled, and since we've already seen RotK, we thought we'd watch a Chinese girly flick" (not their exact words).
Now, if I spoke Chinese even remotely well, I imagine that the movie would have been somewhat good. Not speaking Chinese and thereby missing all of the main plot, I didn't have the best of times.
Chinese theaters are interesting. Your seat is assigned and relatively immovable (the usher was most distressed that I was sitting in seat 4 of my row while one of my friends was sitting in seat 7, the one listed on my ticket). There are no trailers: the movie starts at the exact time listed on the ticket. People talk on their cell phones or with their friends throughout the showing, some fairly hushed, some not. People bring their suppers with them.
The music seemed to be lifted from other movies or classical pieces. I don't think I had ever heard as many arrangements of "Moon River" as I did in the course of the one movie. Some woman also sang "All I wanna do is make love to you" after the guy hung a door for the girl and left. There were two Chinese songs as well.
The movie itself was something like a Tom Hanks/Meg Ryan movie, I think. There was a pretty, young lady whose job had something to do with event management who broke up with the leading man sometime prior to the story's opening, from what I could tell. The guy really liked her, found where she'd moved to in Shanghai, and moved in across the street. I think the guy's grandfather died during the movie, but I'm not certain. At the end, the couple is finally and inexplicably (from a visual standpoint) reunited for a kiss as fireworks erupt over the city.
Posted by jonhanneman at March 24, 2004 10:03 AM | TrackBackthis is an excerpt from an unknown reviewer, who i believe is most definitely chinese but writing in english... (it'll at least clear up the grandfather part anyway.)
many portions of LEAVING ME, LOVING YOU have a distinctly music video “feel” to them. Perhaps this is a function of Faye Wong and Leon Lai having appeared in far more music videos than movies. However, I also do reckon that it is a reflection on how whole portions of the Mark Lui scored production are so music saturated, lacking in dialogue and reliant on musical notes together with quick-fix montages to convey moods. Additionally, there’s this nagging feeling I have that this Category I offering, at whose center is on a man and a woman who may love each other yet not be sufficiently compatible, had to be padded out with such as repeat renditions of “Moon River” -- along with pregnant pauses as well as multiple mundane scenes that were geared towards establishing that Leon and Faye are playing “regular folks” here -- due to it actually not having all that much of a story.
For all intensive purposes, LEAVING ME, LOVING YOU’s main storyline can be easily enough described as follows: Dr. Chow (Leon Lai at his most winsome plus winning) and Siu Yuet (the physically striking Faye Wong) break up, then find their paths crossing once more when a wealthy elder who she was assigned by his son to plan a birthday party for turns out to have her ex-boyfriend as his medical adviser cum personal physician. Initially, the two find themselves at logger heads. This is due in no small part to the good doctor’s worries that the old gentleman’s heart might not be able to take the big surprise that is an integral part of Siu Yuet’s plan for the fragile senior causing her client to hesitate to go ahead with the undoubtedly expensive as well as extravagant display that she had arranged.
Since it is not a situation that the tender-hearted medico had necessarily wished for, and not least because he remains very much in love with Siu Yuet (even while she appears intent on forging a new and more independent path with little room for him in it), he tries to make amends by doing such as supplying the almost always stylishly attired femme with information that she might be able to use to furnish the old gentlemen with the birthday surprise that he really would love to have. Further proof of Dr. Chow’s continuing to be enamored by Siu Yuet comes in the form of his paying scant attention to the attempts at being friendly of a cute traffic cop (played by Jiang Yihong, an actress who I think bears a marked resemblance to a young(er) Maggie Cheung). Additionally, in a move which -- once more -- brought to mind a certain Jet Tone production, albeit with a role reversal twist involved here, the lovesick fellow goes about engaging in what, outside of idealistic romantic works, would be looked upon as the kind of “stalking” behavior that could land its perpetuator in court and even jail...
Posted by: joy at March 24, 2004 04:12 PMI'm going to begin lurking about on your blog, Jon. (do all the regulars have names beginning with J?)
Since my stay in Japan, I've kept an eye on new Japanese movie releases. I downloaded a trailer last night for Casshern (which may, in fact, be a Matrix rip-off; however, there are lots of explosions and swords). Now, if only I spoke Japanese.
There, that was not an exceptional first posting for me; but, there you have it.
I don't know how many lurkers we have around here, but it seems like the "J"s are winning for comments recently. I get about as many comments from people I don't know as from those I do!
Posted by: Jonathan at March 24, 2004 10:07 PM