Lover's Discourse
Starring: Eason Chan Yik-shun, Karena Lam Ka-yan, Mavis Fan Xiaoxuan, Kay Tse On-kei, Jacky Heung Cho Directors: Derek Tsang Kwok-cheung and Jimmy Wan Chi-man Category: IIA (Cantonese and Putonghua)
Despite multiple plot lines and a diverse array of personages, love is far from a many splendoured thing in this ambitious yet tedious saga from directorial debutants Derek Tsang and Jimmy Wan. The four tales of relationships in various states of decay are not without flair, but the entire affair is fatally undermined by characters at times so poorly delineated and/or irritating that a viewer has little patience in observing their emotional upheavals for nearly two hours.
The filmmakers up the ante by striving to intermingle the four chapters, and the results are mixed. Occasionally, we are privy to gratifying insights, but more often than not are left with an impression of confusion and contrivance.
Matters start slowly with a reunion of former sweethearts (Eason Chan and Karena Lam) wallowing in regret over what might have been. Cinematographer Charlie Lam Chi-kin keeps the visuals fluid with lengthy tracking shots.
The most whimsical episode focuses on fantasies concocted by laundress Gigi (Kay Tse) while attending to the soiled bundles of heartthrob dentist Lai (Eddie Peng Yu-yan). Although occasionally a little 'cutesy', Gigi's screen-inspired reveries display a quirkiness one wishes had been evinced throughout the respective lovers' discourses.
The third chapter centres on yuppie Leung (Jacky Heung), whose sighting of Lai leads to a 12-year-old flashback in which the pair's younger selves are played by William Chan Wai-ting and Carlos Chan Ka-lok. It's a bit confusing as the actors essaying the 'callow' and 'mature' roles are, in reality, not all that different in age, and the energy expended by a viewer trying to figure it out detracts from whatever potential impact the situation might have had. Eric Tsang Chi-wai (Derek Tsang's real-life father) is effective in a cameo as Lai's unfaithful dad, but the stand-out is Kit Chan Kit-yee (above foreground, with William Chan) as the mother who must deal with both her husband's perfidies and teenage Leung's unwanted advances.
The scene returns to the present for the final episode, in which Leung and a stranger (Mavis Fan) tepidly try to unravel suspicions about their partners possibly interlacing infidelities. With the stories' loose ends tightly, if unconvincingly, tied into a neat bundle, the picture haplessly concludes with a cliched montage set to an excruciating theme song. Harsh criticism, but even a hypercritical eye can discern enough creative sparks to warrant looking forward to these directors' future films.
Lover's Discourse opens on January 6
