Review | Embrace movie review: Christian drama finds forgiveness in a Hong Kong family’s reunion
- Despite its potentially heart-wrenching and meaningful premise, Embrace never ventures beyond the scope of lighthearted family entertainment
- The inevitable reconciliation between father and estranged daughter does not convince and the contrived scenes fall flat
2.5/5 stars
Forgiveness is the message in this faith-based family drama by Wong Ping-hung, a veteran Hong Kong cinematographer whose filmmaking career stalled when he lost the use of both legs in a traffic accident in 2008. Directing from a script he co-wrote with Elaine Li Wai-yee, Wong’s effort offers a wholesome and mostly undemanding watch for both Christians and non-Christians alike.
The leading role instead goes to Karen Kong, a Malaysian singer-songwriter who has been based in Hong Kong since 2014. She plays Yuet, an aspiring Hong Kong singer who has long stayed away from the city since she became an adult – she is seen busking in Malaysia in the film’s opening – due to her deeply entrenched hatred for his father, Keung (Chan), for abandoning the family for another woman.
But as her elder sister, Lok (Becky Lee Bik-kei), brings the news of their father’s dementia diagnosis and asks her for forgiveness on behalf of the disgraced patriarch, Yuet reluctantly returns to see him. Soon, the whole family – also including Lok’s husband (Kay Ho Kee-yau) and young daughter – move into their childhood home in the fishing village of Tai O to give Keung a more tranquil environment.
Understandably, Yuet is disgusted by her unfaithful father, who doesn’t help the situation by frequently mistaking her for the wife he wronged all those years ago. From there, however, there’s just no point guessing what happens next – as the story edges gently towards the reconciliation between father and daughter with the certainty of death, taxes and one of those contrived scenes of teary embrace.
Despite its potentially heart-wrenching premise, Embrace never ventures beyond the scope of lighthearted family entertainment. Kong’s inexperience as an actress shows; her attempts at looking furious sometimes make for an inadvertently comical presence.
For what it’s worth, the movie even finds a way to get Chan – in reality also the drummer of hit 1970s band The Wynners – on the drums for a climactic scene.
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