Like a Dream

如梦

Hong Kong/Taiwan/China, 2009, colour, 1.85:1, 116 mins.

Director: Luo Zhuoyao 罗卓瑶 [Clara Law].

Rating: 4/10.

Confused, unengaging trifle about an ABC and his Shanghai “dream girl” is beautifully shot but not much more.

STORY

New York, the present day. Depressed after the death of his cat, American-born Chinese Max (Wu Yanzu), co-owner of a small IT company, has recurrent dreams of meeting an emotionally disturbed young woman, Ailing (Yuan Quan), on the night of her boyfriend’s suicide in a Chinese city. On a business trip to Shanghai, he accidentally picks up the wrong pictures from a photoshop in which the woman appears but doesn’t have time to ivestigate. On a subsequent business trip to Hangzhou, near Shanghai, he spots a woman, Yiyi (Yuan Quan), who looks just like Ailing, but she strongly denies she’s the woman in his dreams. However, she agrees to help him find her by going to Shanghai to pose as Ailing and see if anyone recognises her in the streets.

REVIEW

There’s always been a fanciful side to the films of Macau-born director Luo Zhuoyao 罗卓瑶 [Clara Law] and her Hong Kong scriptwriter husband Fang Lingzheng 方令正 [Eddie Fong], but the misses have notably grown since the pair moved to Australia in 1995 and embarked on more “international” subjects (Floating Life 浮生, 1996; The Goddess of 1967 , 2000; Letters to Ali, 2004), stripped of a secure Asian identity (Fruit Punch YES！一族, 1991; Autumn Moon 秋月, 1992). Like a Dream represents a welcome return by Law to the region but, though it’s beautifully shot by Australian-born d.p. Sion Michel (Hot Summer Days 全城热恋, 2010) in Shanghai, Hangzhou, New York and (doubling for the deserted, nightime city of the protagonist’s dreams) Taipei, the movie yokes unsympathetic characters to a story that doesn’t engage as a romantic fantasy and certainly doesn’t convince on its parallel real level.

An actor who’s always needed a strong script, Wu Yanzu 吴彦祖 [Daniel Wu] spends most of the time either looking confused or moping around, as an ABC who speaks fluent Chinese in his recurring dreams but schoolboy Chinese in real life. Mainland actress Yuan Quan 袁泉, who’s never realised her early promise, mostly overacts as (a) a down-to-earth Hangzhou factory girl (“in the most boring job in the world”) who wobbles on high heels when she dresses up as a Shanghaier, and (b) a fey dream girl who’s a total enigma (partly recalling her role in A Love of Blueness 蓝色爱情, 2000, by Huo Jianqi 霍建起). The film is meant to be about how life is one long search for one’s lost lives, from the point-of-view of a man who was traumatised in his youth and has never had a serious relationship. Instead, it comes over as a nicely shot travelogue with a few sincere moments between all the fanciful stuff.

CREDITS

Presented by Beijing Polybona Film Distribution (CN), Arc Light Films (TW), Bona Entertainment (HK). Produced by Lunar Films (HK), Arc Light Films (TW).

Script: Fang Lingzheng [Eddie Fong], Luo Zhuoyao [Clara Law]. Photography: Sion Michel. Editing: Steve Doyle, Jill Holt. Music: Paul Grabowsky. Art direction supervision: Xi Zhongwen [Yee Chung-man]. Art direction: Cai Peiling. Costume design: Wu Lilu [Dora Ng]. Sound: Du Duzhi. Visual effects: Peter Webb. Choreography: Zhang Xiaoxiong.

Cast: Wu Yanzu (Max), Yuan Quan (Ailing; Yiyi), Tang Zhiling (Ailing’s mother), Chen Bowen (Ailing’s father), Miriam Mikiol (Jen), A. Kyo Moon (Sean), Gary Merill (Max’s psychiatrist), Li Zongxuan (male dancer), Zhang Lanyun (female dancer), Li Daojun (Photoshop clerk), Nolymar Reyes (Max’s New York girlfriend).

Premiere: Taipei Golden Horse Film Festival, Taiwan, 26 Nov 2009.

Release: China, 30 Apr 2010; Hong Kong, 20 May 2010; Taiwan, 15 Apr 2011.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 8 Jul 2010.)