R E V I E W :   Comrades, Almost a Love Story 

Reviewed 6/4/01 | Background | Movie Review | DVD Review | Recommendation

Background 

Mei Ah / 1996 / 116 minutes
Directed by Peter Chan Hoh-San
Written by Ivy Ho

This was the third film directed by Peter Chan Hoh-San that was released in 1996. The first was The Age of Miracles in February and the second was the well-received He's a Woman, She's a Man in August.

This film was released in Hong Kong cinemas in November 1996, enjoyed a long run in which it grossed HK $15.5 million, and won several Hong Kong Film Awards the following year.

Director Chan has retreated behind the scenes as an executive for UFO (United Filmmakers Organisation), the production company he co-founded with Eric Tsang. His most recent screen credit came as a producer for Twelve Nights in 2000.

Movie: plot, performances, production, rating

Plot: The date is March 1, 1986. Freshly arrived in Hong Kong from his home in Northern China, Li Xiao Jin is overwhelmed by the city. He has emigrated to make a better life for himself and for the girlfriend he left behind, Xiao-ting. Eventually he forms a friendship and a tentative romance with the lovely and ambitious Li Chiao . . .

Performances: Maggie Cheung Man-Yuk is the emotional core of the film as Li Chiao. Many of her best scenes are extremely quiet as the camera captures the look in her eyes and face as she responds to words or actions that are heart-rending. Without doing anything to draw attention to herself, she shows the changes in her character's personality over a period of time. As Li Xiao-Jin, Leon Lai Ming does not quite measure up to her performance, yet he complements her quite well for the most part as the naïve and well-intentioned Li Xiao Jin. Kristy Yeung Kung-Yu does fine looking cute and innocent as Xiao-ting, but is a bit lost when deeper emotional material is mined later in the story. Good support is given by Irene Tsui as Aunt Rosie, Eric Tsang Chi-Wai as Paau Goh, and Christopher Doyle (Wong Kong Wei's cinematographer) as Jeremy, an English teacher and later the boyfriend of Cabbage, a prostitute who works for Aunt Rosie.

Production: The script is very good, although it takes some too-predictable turns as the story progresses. The direction is brilliant, allowing some scenes to play out in silence and others without music, heightening the impact at certain key points. The only misstep is in repeating the main musical theme (a few forlorn notes) too many times (the musical score was composed by Chiu Tsang-Hei). The cinematography by Jingle Ma Choh Sing is beautiful, making cityscapes look lush. Even Eric Tsang Chi Wai's back glows. The film was edited by veteran talents Kwong Chi-Leung and Chan Kei-Hop.

Rating: Category IIA. Several bedroom scenes are handled very discreetly, as is one scene of violence.

DVD: look, sound, subtitles, and features

Look: The letterboxed (approximately 1.85:1) presentation looked fine. Overall the picture appeared a bit soft, leaving the colors less than vibrant. It's tempting to blame this on Mei Ah, but there's a possibility that the way the picture looks was intentional on the part of the filmmakers. It is a memory piece to some extent, and the story takes place over a period of years - so the look may be seen as a reflection of the characters' gauzy recollections. In any event, the source print is not particularly clean with dirt and splotches evident.

Sound: I listened to the DD 5.1 Cantonese audio track (which also contains quite a lot of dialogue in Mandarin) and it sounded fine. The film is dialogue-driven with no surround sounds that I could detect. As a result, there was little difference I could hear between the DD 5.1 and 2.0 audio tracks that are provided. To recap: both Cantonese and Mandarin audio tracks are provided in both DD 5.1 and 2.0 versions.

Subtitles: The white removable English subtitles were easy to read and well timed with few grammatical or spelling mistakes. Also included are subtitles in traditional and simplified Chinese.

Features: Nine chapters can be selected from a still-picture menu. The data bank consists of a brief synopsis and abbreviated cast and crew listing. That's it - not even a trailer.

Buy, rent, or pass?

Buy. A richly nuanced romantic drama featuring two excellent performances. The bare-bones DVD may discourage some from buying the disk, but it should not keep anyone from seeking out and seeing the film more than once.

 

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