Starring: Lu Yulai, Bernhard Bulling, Wella Zhang, Hannes Lindenblatt
Director: Kit Hung Wing-kit
Category: IIB (German, English, Putonghua and Cantonese)
As personal as it is perplexing, this Chinese-Swiss look at lost love marks an ambitious directorial debut bogged down by artistic pretence.
Indie auteur Kit Hung Wing-kit displays true independence in constructing a screenplay with protagonists far removed from local mainstream fare. Beijing emigrant Ricky (Lu Yulai, right) and Swiss visitor Pascal (Bernhard Bulling, far right) are not only facing cultural barriers in a tough environment in Hong Kong but involved in a gay relationship that is interracial to boot. That's a lot of issues for one movie without the philosophical burdens imposed by a plot twist in which one boyfriend suddenly dies.
That the characters' slender shoulders aren't quite up to the task is all the more disappointing as the two actors possess genuine 'outsider' bona fides and are not at all the types one is accustomed to encountering on the Hong Kong screen. Pascal is a juggler and pickpocket breaking free from an abusive beau (Hannes Lindenblatt) and Ricky is a fast food delivery boy living with his no-nonsense prostitute aunt (Wella Zhang). The milieu they inhabit could be fascinating, but the director spends too much time on meaningful glances and symbolic intercutting to further the overcomplicated narrative.