Perhaps Love

Year:2005
Director:Peter Chan Ho-Sun
Cast:Takeshi Kaneshiro, Zhou Xun, Jacky Cheung Hok-Yau, Ji Jin-Hee, Eric Tsang Chi-Wai, Sandra Ng Kwun-Yu
Description:
Love
can be bittersweet - though sometimes, it's far more
bitter than sweet. That's the prevailing feeling from
Perhaps Love, the new Hong Kong musical from
director Peter Chan. Takeshi Kaneshiro stars as Lin
Jian-Dong, a Hong Kong heartthrob arriving in Shanghai
to work on a new musical from director Nie Wen . The film's leading lady is Sun Na ,
a driven-for-success actress with a popularity that
extends to Hollywood. Sun Na has long been Nie Wen's
partner - both on the screen and off - but this new
collaboration has issues. Nie Wen doubts his creative
fire, and looks to his new film to reassert his once-established
filmmaking genius. Thanks to Nie Wen's artistic temperament,
the relationship between the two suffers from some
strain.
But with the arrival of Jian-Dong,
Nie Wen and Sun Na's relationship is about to get
a whole lot messier. The plot of Nie Wen's musical
concerns a pair of young lovers, who are separated
when the girl loses her memory. The girl is taken in by a circus ringmaster. She becomes
a showgirl, and she and the ringmaster fall in love.
Eventually, the boy shows up,
and strives to rekindle their love. The role of the
ringmaster has yet to be cast, so Nie Wen eventually
places himself in the role. But what Nie Wen doesn't
know is that his musical is a dead ringer for reality
. Jian-Dong and Sun Na
were actually in love ten years prior, and the dissolution
of their love had everything to do with Sun Na's ambition.
Now, she merely wants to forget her past, but Jian-Dong
is here to right that wrong. Nie Wen, like the ringmaster,
is the third party who can only watch as his new love
is reunited with her old one. Art mirrors reality,
and soon Nie Wen's script begins to change to reflect
life. There's also singing.
The love triangle of
Perhaps Love is familiar stuff as plots go,
but that's easily forgiven. Movie musicals are seldom
known for their amazing stories, but instead for how
they marry song, dance, and drama into a coherent,
and hopefully enchanting whole. Unfortunately for
Perhaps Love, that's where things hit a bit
of a snag. Perhaps Love features many musical
sequences, but they're all set within the "musical
within a musical". Basically, the only time actors
break into song or dance is when they're required
to by the musical they're shooting. This style is
much more "real" than the stagey "I
feel a song coming on!" rationale that permeates
most classic Hollywood musicals, but the result is
an obvious distance. Characters don't really emote
in their songs; instead, the songs elucidate established
emotions or plot. Frequently, the songs even serve
as montage, which is effective but not intimate. Some
overdone editing also hurts some of the numbers, particularly
the earliest ones. Ultimately, whatever power some
of the musical sequences possessed feels muted by
these choices.
Lacking overt power to affect,
the musical sequences instead rely on the actors to
carry them. The effect varies here, with Takeshi Kaneshiro
and Zhou Xun's singing evoking comparatively little,
especially when compared to Jacky Cheung. Cheung smokes
both off the screen with his rich vocals and obvious
charisma during his musical sequences. This isn't
to say that Zhou and Kaneshiro are bad in the film.
On the contrary, both serve the script exceptionally
well. Occasionally, Perhaps Love flashes back
to Jian-Dong and Sun Na's happier Beijing days, and
the growth and ultimate bitterness of their love affair
is conveyed remarkably by both the actors. Kaneshiro
has long excelled at playing handsome, yet emotionally-crippled
individuals, and Perhaps Love gives him ample
opportunity to fix his heartbroken puppy-dog pupils
on his costar. Zhou Xun does a remarkable job with
a difficult character. Sun Na's change from loving
girlfriend to attention-hungry performer is spelled
out mostly through visual exposition, but the actress
handles her character's complexities convincingly,
and with frequently touching emotion.
Rounding out the quartet
of lead stars is Korean actor Ji Jin-Hee as Monty,
the film's narrator and lone fantasy element. Monty
bookends the film with his explanation of purpose:
basically, he's an emotional tax collector whose purpose is to return emotions
or memories to those who've forgotten or denied them.
The three principal characters all fall into that
category, so Monty shows up in a number of obvious
disguises to guide each of them along their path to
emotional rediscovery. Ji Jin-Hee does a fine job
with the role, showing charisma plus a touch of humor
in a film that is sorely lacking anything of the sort.
The role itself is more of a plot device than a functional
character, but Ji is likable and even handles his
own Mandarin well. It's a credit to the actor that
the underdeveloped device eventually works.
Peter Chan's
last feature-length Hong Kong film was Comrades,
Almost a Love Story nearly a decade ago, but Chan
has been busy as a producer in the ensuing years.
Perhaps Love possesses many of the traits of
Chan's producing works, namely a polished production,
a thoughtful screenplay, and that certain something
that can only be called "quality assurance".
Perhaps Love doesn't just look like a good
movie, it feels like one. The recent spate
of Western-influenced
Hong Kong films seem to indicate quality, but it's
usually more of a superficial quality than the obvious
hands-on hard work that Chan's productions radiate.
Complementing things are the excellent art direction
and cinematography , which are a cut above
most Asian fare, while still retaining a rough, textured
feel. A love of actual filmmaking seems to go into
Chan's productions ,
and Perhaps Love does evoke feeling.
It's with its love story
that Perhaps Love finds its ultimate success
- and perhaps even its downfall. Chan has long had
a keen eye towards the innate and sometimes terrible
emotions that accompany love. The characters of Perhaps
Love bring these emotions to life, sometimes in
distressing and even disturbing ways. The result certainly
feels real; love is composed of affection, sacrifice,
selfishness, hate, possessiveness, and plenty of other
counseling-worthy emotions, and Perhaps Love
covers this territory with sometimes heartbreaking
effectiveness. But the emotions are largely bitter,
a tough emotion that can affect but also alienate.
This is the film's biggest frustration; it's a musical
that conveys a myriad of emotions - but not joy. That's
not really a fault, though anyone expecting a Hong
Kong Moulin Rouge may be put off at the moroseness
of some of the characters. If the filmmakers want
us to root for either of Sun Na's suitors, they don't
try very hard to convince us to do so.
But that's more of a
criticism aimed at expectation. Most musicals about
love at least try to sell the emotion as an all-encompassing,
grand feeling that all but defines life. Perhaps
Love does not sell love as the ultimate empowerment,
but instead portrays it realistically, as the complex,
alluring, tortuous, and sometimes crippling emotion
that it is. It seems that the intended feeling of
Perhaps Love is one of bittersweetness, but
again, the bitter portion seems to outweigh the sweet.
As such, audiences looking for something a little
more joyful will likely be put off, and it's hard
to fault them for that. Expectations do play a part
in a film's enjoyment, and Perhaps Love may
not meet everyone's. Still, this is an accomplished
and worthwhile effort from one of Hong Kong's leading
filmmakers - which is more than enough reason to give
it a recommendation. It's certainly flawed and even
a little frustrating, but the images and emotions
presented are sometimes more than enough.