Last night it felt like I spent two hours back in Hong Kong. Actually, I went with my friend Nuria to a screening of Don’t Go Breaking My Heart, directed by Johnnie To. It was one of many films screened at this year’s Chicago International Film Festival.
The film centered around mainland actress Gao Yuanyuan, who was supposed to be from Suzhou (reported to have the most beautiful women in China) and worked in Hong Kong as a financial analyst. After a traumatic breakup with her boyfriend of 7 years (who impregnates and marries another woman), Gao’s character Zhiyan finds herself in the middle of another love triangle. She meets Qihong, played by Daniel Wu, who’s just this side of homeless. He reminds me of a younger, scruffier Tsui Hark, so of course I want her to pick him from the start.
And then there’s Louis Koo, whose character Shenran is a shuai millionaire who also works in finance. Shenran represents the stereotypical young Hong Kong guy. He drives fast cars, lavishes his women with expensive material possessions, and believes men come in two types: those who cheat and those who want to cheat.
But Zhiyan wants more. She wants someone who’s completely devoted to her. Qihong, the raggedy alcoholic, turns out to be a US-trained architect originally from Canada who plays ice hockey. Zhiyan has a hard time choosing between the two.
Although it seemed like the answer was inevitable and a typical Hollywood one, I read that the ending wasn’t decided until a week before the filming was completed.
What I loved about the film–besides its gorgeous Hong Kong setting–was how it used language. Being from mainland China, Zhiyan only speaks Mandarin. The two men are more or less tri-lingual (Cantonese, Mandarin, and English), but when courting Zhiyan, the architect Qihong uses Mandarin (which is flawless) and the finance guy Shenran feels more comfortable with Cantonese. At one point, Zhiyan and Shenran argue in two languages–she in Mandarin and he in Cantonese. That’s normal in a place like Hong Kong where people might understand each other but feel most comfortable speaking in their native tongue (except of course a Renaissance man like Qihong!).
The film may not be realistic, but the message holds true no matter your culture: money can’t buy love. Thank you, Chicago International Film Festival for bringing me back to Hong Kong, if just for a couple hours.
ordinary malaysian says
As far as I am concerned Cantonese is not a language, neither is Hokkien (which I happen to speak because I am a Hokkien myself, and I can also understand Cantonese though I can’t speak it well) or Teochew or Khek or….All these so called languages share the same written characters as in Mandarin. They are really all dialects to me. Only pronunciation differs. Otherwise, there will be many Chinese languages….But I don’t really know what the experts say about what constitutes a language.
I have not seen the movie however, because I have long stopped going to watch Hong Kong movies. They are always the same old formulaic stuff. But it is nice that in this movie you write about, they use Mandarin and Cantonese in the dialogues seamlessly.
Malaysian movies are worse, a hundred times worse. Actually there is no such thing as a Malaysian movie. We have Malay movies, Chinese movies or Indian movies but not a Malaysian movie. And they are really very boring to watch.
The closest to a Malaysian movie that I can think of was the film “Sepet” by Yasmin Ahmad. Sepet -Malay for slit eyes-comes close to what can be truly called a Malaysian movie. It is actually a very simple love story between a young 16 years old Malay girl who is awaiting her school results and an older Chinese boy who sells pirated VCDs.
And to really enjoy the movie it will help if you can understand several languages and dialects besides. Because for once in the history of the local movie industry, the dialogues used are not the usual predictable, monolingual, monotonous and stilted variety we are treated to.
The characters in Sepet actually speak to each other the way Malaysians talk to one another in real, everyday life. So, you will probably have to have some understanding of Malay, Mandarin, English, Cantonese and Hokkien to truly appreciate the film.
Not surprisingly, the film won the Best Asian Film at the 18th Tokyo International Film Festival in 2005, among some other international awards.
Check out my post at http://lifeasanordinarymalaysian.blogspot.com/2011/05/yasmin-ahmad-arguably-malaysias-best.html
Susan Blumberg-Kason says
Thanks so much for your comment!! You’re right–Cantonese (and Hokkien, etc) are dialects, not languages. I did notice in Hong Kong, though, that some newspapers used weird characters which corresponded to Cantonese pronunciation. For instance, instead of using the characters for ‘don’t have’, they just use the character for ‘have’, but delete the two strokes inside the outside strokes. They also use some romanized lettering like “D” mixed in with characters.
Back to the film, I thought the quality was quite good and obviously more costly than the standard HK flick. Now that there are many mainlanders living in HK, it was a pretty accurate picture of how those mainlanders interact with locals and vice versa. Sepet looks great! I will see if I can rent it in the US. There was a Singaporean film many years ago that I liked called Bugis Street. I think it’s also hard to make a true Singaporean film because of the many cultures there, too.
Thank you again for your great comment!!
Shannon Young says
I watched this film with a friend who came to visit me in Hong Kong, and we liked it so much that we went to see it a second time. Although it was predictable in some ways, it felt so fresh and clever compared to the typical Hollywood chick flick. I haven’t seen enough HK romances to know whether they are all the same, but this film made me want to watch more.
I agree that the use of language gave it a nice edge, though it was interesting that a film set in Hong Kong would be predominately in Mandarin. It still had a very “Hong Kong flavor” if that makes sense. Glad you got to see it in Chicago!
Susan Blumberg-Kason says
Thanks, Shannon! That’s so funny you went to see it again because I desperately wanted to go back, but last night was the final screening. I totally agree that it was a higher quality than the HK romantic comedies I used to watch in the 90s. I read that this one was made for a mainland audience, thus all the Mandarin.
I think it would do well in the US, but so far it’s only showing at US film festivals. You’re right–it does have a strong “Hong Kong flavor”, which of course I love!
Thanks again for your comment!!