Perhaps Love, directed by Peter Ho-Sun Chan 2005.
I'm not really a huge fan of musicals but I was pleasantly surprised by Peter Chan's Perhaps Love. I don't think I've ever actually seen a Chinese musical before, but this film was a great first introduction.
The story revolves around three main characters, big time star Lin Jian-dong, the hugely popular actress Sun Na, and the director of the musical Nie Wen. What follows is a story of a love triangle between the three characters. This is played out through the device of having the musical being made in the film act as a symbolic foil to the actual love story between the three characters. Switching between the musical and the actual film, the story moves through the dynamics of each character's relationship with one another. Not necessarily a highly original idea, but one that was nonetheless executed quite well.
The acting is superb, and it should be since it is filled with major Asian cinema stars. This helps carry the film further than it might otherwise have gone.
Stylistically the set designs are superb, often calling up memories of Moulin Rouge (which in my opinion was only noteworthy for its set design). However, where a film like Moulin Rouge opted purely for a highly stylized motif, Perhaps Love has the benefit of the musical being the film within the film. So while the musical sets are highly stylized, Peter Chan is also able to take maximum advantage of the natural surroundings in which he chose to film. What results is a film that alternates between highly constructed, beautiful set pieces, and inspired natural cinematographic moments.
At times the film became a little overly sappy for me, but overall I felt the story was touching and I was highly engaged with each of the main characters, their history, and what was going on inside their heads.
The ending does seem to drag on a little bit too much at the end, and I felt like the director just didn't want to end the film. What results is one of those films, where I find myself saying, "If he had just ended it at this point it would have been a great movie."
Still, its not everyday that you get to see an Asian musical (at least not for me) and this one is particularly well put together.
***Three stars.
1 comment:
It's been a while since I saw Moulin Rouge, but I recall not liking it at all. I suppose I should look at it with new eyes, but I'm very unlikely to do so. As such, I liked this film a lot less than you did.
You've already heard this ad nauseum, but no one else has. I felt that in this film, it was trying to be a bit too clever with the film = memory so the love triangle of the musical being shot in the film is also the story of the love triangle between the stars and director of that musical, which is also a major part of Sun Na's memoir that is being written by the man who likens film to memory in the opening moments of the movie before going on to be one of the cast (assuming I haven't done some misrecognition of people in my memory).
I also thought that the CG at the end was a bit overdone, but that's a minor quibble.
On a positive note, Jacky Cheung's singing voice is really quite good, and I recall finding the spectacle of the musical numbers fairly impressive.
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