There were lots of different opinions about this film...
I wasn't going to watch this film in the first place cause one of my trusted movie watcher didn't like it... and our taste were pretty close...so i didn't really think about this film..
but many different ppl keep on saying how good it is..and i liked the actress in the film.. so i am like..what the heck...
the only way to find out is to watch it myself...
( Warning: Spoilers ahead... if you have not watched the movie or u have watched it and liked it alot...
Please do not read on!!) The idea of the story is alright...
it is kinda like a <
Day for Night> by Francois Truffaut and <
Le Mepris> by Jean Luc Godard, where it is a movie about doing a movie production...
how the relationship of the characters acting in the movie have their relationship problems in real life and how the director had to deal with them...
However, in both films, Truffaut and Godard used that method to show the director's own personal reflections on making film..
to use it to rethink and mediate film as a medium...to show the reality of the illusion of the movie business... how chaotic and messy an actual shooting process can be...
to disengage the audience and keep a distance with the film so they can have a thinking space
Well...Peter Chan used this form to show love is kinda like the illusion as a movie production.. that it is not real...
and the story takes place in a circus to kinda reinforce that point...
there were lots of use of reflective surfaces..like the water surfaces..and mirrors...
so i thought..hm..ok..maybe it does have something to tell...
The movie tries to blur the boundaries of the characters' memories into the movie by intercutting between the story being shot and what actually happened...well...it did worked in some of the scene... like the scene where Xun Zhou was struggling whether to go with Takeshi... and all these other girls are pulling her back.. intercutting her own past where she had to have drinks with directors to get parts...
the editing wasn't done that well... too choppy.. i know what they were trying to do.. but just too disorganize.. didn't work.. just confused the audience.. and some of the scene didn't really cut together...
how come they had a little movie of Takeshi and Zhou Xun on the river hugging?? where did that come from??
it is like one of the key points of the movie..and just breaks the whole plot that was based on it...
Overall, all the characters do not have enough depth...too one dimensional...
most of the muscial scenes weren't done that well... the dancers wasn't really collaborated well together...the lighting setup have no mood or style...the sets in those scenes just too crap compare to the rest of the film... esp the last scene where they were flying in the air.. the background was just too fake...
and i think because film being shot was a musical.. it limited the power of those scenes..
where the lines..which has to be lyrics that is suppose to move the story forward... was limited because it had to fit the music and couldn't really go deep enough...
if it were just regular dialogues, will have helped build on the characters emotions much better...
if Peter Chan wants to show love as an illusion... that love is really harsh and unreal... please... go all the way...the ending really wasn't needed...
if u were firm enough to just have Takeshi walk out on Zhou Xun..taking revenge on her..
then i will be clapping my hands and cheering for you..cause u were brave enough to surprise the audience
not to have a happy ending as expected...
and u had made ur point...but no..it had to linger on...and on...and on...
However,
in the end..
i do have to give the director some credit..
cause he did try to do something new and be creative..
it was a nice try... but just have the form... not the content..
and please..the basics and little details are important....
