Don’t Forget I Love You
不要忘记我爱你
China/Hong Kong, 2022, colour, 2.35:1, 126 mins.
Director: Huang Zhenzhen 黄真真 [Barbara Wong].
Rating: 6/10.
Formulaic but clever rom-com features attractive leads and an above-average script that goes the distance.
STORY
Chengdu city, Sichuan province, 2 May 2021. Due to an operation for a brain tumour 18 months ago, songwriter Lu Yao (Liu Yihao) has no short-term memory. He wakes up every morning wondering where he is, and relies on sticky notes everywhere in his flat to tell him what to do that day. His elder sister Lu Hong (Zhang Xinyi) has also prepared a file about his recent life which he reads every morning before leaving to visit her. She is a divorcee with a baby boy whom Lu Yao looks after when she has to go out. She accompanies him on a regular check-up with his doctor (Zhang Lei), who invites him to take part in some research tests that are being held at Huaren University’s psychology department. Lu Yao hasn’t written a song since his operation; but his agent and friend, Buddy (Luo Ji), persuades the manager (Ni Hanjin) of popular singer Qin Meisu to let him submit a song to the competition that’s taking place in a few days’ time for a new song for her. Lu Yao realises he quickly has to find a lyricist. Waiting at a junction while on his way to the university, Lu Yao spots a crazy, emotional woman in the car next to his. She turns out to be the therapist, Xu Xingyue (Gulnazar), who’s conducting the tests. These turn out to be very strange and supposedly designed to stimulate his subconscious. Lu Yao also ends up helping her to break up with her boyfriend (Ma Zhiwei) over the phone. She admits she’s not a qualified doctor yet, and is still writing her PhD. Lu Yao agrees to meet the next day, but the appointment is interrupted when she hears her flat is flooding. He drives her home, where he also encounters her hippie boyfriend who’s come round for his guitar. Xu Xingyue’s hobby is writing poetry, and she dreams of joining the Joy Harjo Workshop. That evening, drinking by the river, the two of them end up writing a song together. They also almost kiss – until she reminds him she is his psychologist. Nevertheless, they soon spend the night together after recording their song to submit to the competition. Lu Hong, however, discovers their relationship and, for the good of her brother, tells Xu Xingyue to stay away from him. She adds that she’s erased all his aides-memoire featuring her, so he will forget she ever existed.
REVIEW
Four years after her lame BFF hug-fest Girls 2 闺蜜2 (2018), variable Hong Kong film-maker Huang Zhenzhen 黄真真 [Barbara Wong] reappears with Don’t Forget I Love You 不要忘记我爱你, a clever spin on the meet-cute date movie that was surprisingly the strongest (in quality) of the Mainland’s three Valentine’s Day films. Surprisingly, because Huang has always been a variable director, ever since her quirky, echt-Hong Kong ensemble comedies from the early 2000s. And her switch to the Mainland market, starting with the embarrassingly arch The Allure of Tears 倾城之泪 (2011), has produced very mixed dividends, both in quality and box office. Though higher on quality, it was, alas, the lowest in box office of the Valentine’s Day trio (which also included the risible Ten Years of Loving You 十年一品温如言 and fanciful 0.1% World 好想去你的世界爱你), taking a meh RMB56 million.
Huang’s biggest Mainland earners have been the poorly written comedy-drama The Stolen Years 被偷走的那五年 (2013; RMB149 million) and the equally poor, rom-commy Girls 闺蜜 (2014; RMB205 million), the latter a surprise semi-hit. Her other Mainland films have all performed about the same as Don’t Forget, including her one quality genre item, The Secret 消失爱人 (2016), a well-made tear-jerker with a ghostly spin.
The script, by Huang and a new team of writers, spins, like her earlier The Stolen Years, on loss of memory – though in a different way. Here the protagonist, a successful young songwriter, has been robbed of any short-term memory since an operation for a brain tumour 18 months ago: so every day is the start of a new life for him, guided only by copious sticky notes around his flat reminding him what to do, and a “bible” of his life prepared by his elder sister. However, he does have residual long-term memories. When he meets a kooky psychology student, and together they write a song and fall in love, the question arises of how long he can sustain the relationship without forgetting her.
It’s a cute idea and, like 0.1% World, a pure genre piece with one clever idea to differentiate it from the norm. The nice surprise is that, unlike 0.1% World, Huang and her three co-writers (one of whom, Fan Xingyue 樊星玥, lends her given name to the heroine) manage to sustain the idea beyond the first 30 minutes, developing it into a largely light-hearted love story that extends to two hours without any sense of strain. Even though the story seems to be over, in conventional terms, by the 90-minute mark, it then takes a left-hand turn into more dramatic territory and is then capped by a clever ending that’s both moving and humorous. The film is still formula – but good formula. And, again unlike 0.1% World, it at least makes sense in its own universe.
Not for the first time in a Huang film, much of the success is due to the performances, especially by 29-year-old Uyghur actress Gulnazar 古力娜扎 (period shoot-’em-up The Game Changer 游戏规则, 2017; the bolshy bassist in City of Rock 缝纫机乐队, 2017), who’s better known on TV but here gets to strut her stuff on film in a major way as the kooky psychology student. Top-billed, she brings an energy that’s both funny and touching, and makes a strong partner for Taiwan actor-singer Liu Yihao 刘以豪, 35, looking much more relaxed than in time-travel rom-com Take Me to The Moon 带我去月球 (2017) and much more animated than in weepie More Than Blue 比悲伤更悲伤的故事 (2018). The two make an engaging pair and carry most of the film, with good support from Zhang Xinyi 张歆艺 (Miss Puff 泡芙小姐, 2018) as the lead’s elder sister and comic Luo Ji 罗辑 as his best pal/agent. Despite the small number of characters, they’re fully drawn and given space to perform, as well as dialogue that doesn’t sound like it’s been written by a computer.
Along with her co-writers, Huang has also changed her tech crew, upping her game with bright, good-looking widescreen photography by Taiwan ace Che Liangyi 车亮逸 [Randy Che], smooth editing by Hong Kong’s Li Jiarong 李嘉荣, and catchy music by Japan’s Hatano Yusuke 波多野裕介 (SoulMate 七月与安生, 2016).
CREDITS
Presented by Guangzhou Culture Communication (CN), Universe Entertainment (HK), Shanghai Taopiaopiao Movie & TV Culture (CN).
Script: Huang Zhenzhen [Barbara Wong], Zhuo Nini, Lin Keren, Fan Xingyue. Poems: Yu Youyou. Photography: Che Liangyi [Randy Che]. Editing: Li Jiarong. Music: Hatano Yusuke. Theme song: Hatano Yusuke (music), Li Man (lyrics), Xu Xiangyun (vocals). Art direction: Huang Zhihong. Styling: Wei Xiangrong. Sound: Yin Jie, Ma Junchang, Nie Jirong. Action: Kong Xiangwen. Visual effects: Yu Liang, Gu Yu (123 Vision Pictures, Red Hare FX).
Cast: Gulnazar (Xu Xingyue), Liu Yihao (Lu Yao), Zhang Yang (Shu Ting, Xu Xingyue’s supervisor), Luo Ji (Buddy, Lu Yao’s agent), Zhang Xinyi (Lu Hong, Lu Yao’s elder sister), Ma Zhiwei (Ma Xiu, Xu Xingyue’s ex-boyfriend), Feng Jiamei (obstetrician), Qin Meisu (singer, herself), Zhang Lei (Zhang Liming, doctor), Ni Hanjin (Jimmy, Qin Meisu’s manager), Jin Yutong (Jin, Jimmy’s assistant), Chu Xu (Xiaoxin, Shu Ting’s assistant).
Release: China, 14 Feb 2022; Hong Kong, tba.