Virtual Recall
异空危情
China, 2010, colour, 1.85:1, 95 mins.
Director: Zhang Haijing 张海靖.
Rating: 4/10.
Pulpy psychodrama is made watchable by its two female leads.
STORY
Hong Kong, the present day. At the luxurious Yilu Nursing Home 漪芦疗养院, psychiatrist Xiao Tingqin (Tang Yifei) is assigned the case of “special” patient Shen Liushuang (Ying Cai’er), who claims to live both in the real world and 12 parallel universes, and appears to have special powers. As soon as they meet, Shen Liushuang starts playing mind-games with Xiao Tingqin, whose one-year-old marriage to independently wealthy policeman Zhen Shanlin (Feng Delun) is already under serious strain, due to her workaholia and her aversion to being touched by him. Shen Liushuang introduces Xiao Tingqin to the scientific concept of “worm-holes”, through which one can travel in time and to parallel universes, and stirs memories in Xiao Tingqin of her past relationship with both Zhen Shanlin and her first love Ji Lv. Zhen Shanlin’s friendship with gourmet-food shop-owner Gu Xilin (Jiang Yawen) has also put further strain on her marriage, and one day, meeting them in the street, she starts to wonder whether Shen Liushuang has enabled her to experience parallel versions of her life.
REVIEW
Funded by China, largely put together by Hong Kongers and with a Greater China cast, Virtual Recall 异空危情 is a clever idea for a psychodrama-cum-fantasy that’s let down by unsubtle direction and a weak script. Based on Symbiosis 共生 (2006), the 12th novel in the series Subtle Stories 微妙物语 by popular Hong Kong writer Lin Yongchen 林咏琛 – another story was already turned into the film Magic Kitchen 魔幻厨房 (2004), a glossy vehicle for Zheng Xiuwen 郑秀文 [Sammi Cheng] and Liu Dehua 刘德华 [Andy Lau] – the film has enough potential to work as, say, a super-slick South Korean genre movie but only works fitfully here under the rather 1990s-style direction of Hong Kong’s Zhang Haijing 张海靖 (The Sword Stained with Royal Blood 新碧血剑, 1993) and with a less-than-generous budget.
Basically a mystery-drama played out between two women (a patient and a doctor) in a sanitarium, with a lot of scientific babble about parallel universes and a Big Final Twist, the movie depends a lot on mood and chemistry between its two leads. Zhang is not much good at sustaining the former, but he does have two interesting lead actresses – lively, Taiwan-born Ying Cai’er 应采儿 [Cherrie Ying] (Throw Down 柔道龙虎榜, 2004) as the “special” patient and Mainland actress-singer Tang Yifei 唐一菲 as the screwed-up psychiatrist. There’s only marginal chemistry between the two on screen but individually both give performances that are watchable on a genre level, especially Tang (the terrorist leader’s sexy wife in Future X-Cops 未来警察, 2010). Hong Kong’s Feng Delun 冯德伦 [Stephen Fung], as the psychiatrist’s patient husband, is colorless, as so often.
Apparently set in Hong Kong, but never convincingly so, the film is just okay on a technical level, as are the visual effects.
CREDITS
Presented by Wenzhou Aobang Culture Communication(CN), Shanghai Qinweidu Film & TV (CN), Jinmanduo Films (CN).
Script: Zhang Haijing, Li Jiongjia, Tan Weicheng. Novel: Lin Yongchen. Photography: Kwang Tinghe. Editing: Jiang Guoquan. Music: Zhou Qisheng. Art direction: Zhong Yifeng. Costume design: Li Danni. Sound: Qian Yongli. Action: Hu Zhilong. Visual effects: Ding Yuanda.
Cast: Feng Delun [Stephen Fung] (Zhen Shanlin), Ying Cai’er [Cherrie Ying] (Shen Liushuang), Tang Yifei (Xiao Tingqin, doctor), Peng Jingci (Ye Junneng), Chen Jianfeng (Ji Lv), Zhang Meng (Lan Xiaoli), Jiang Yawen (Gu Xilin), Lian Jin [Lian Weijian] (Gao, sanitarium head), Tian Qiwen (Bill), Lei Yuyang (Lin, doctor), Chen Zhijing (Wang, doctor), Li Hui (Xu, doctor), Li Zhi’ang (Li, professor), Dai Zhanguo (Guo, doctor), Cen Jieyi (Red Bridge girl), Liang Junxuan (Red Bridge boy).
Release: China, 12 Oct 2010.
(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 17 Feb 2011.)