Review | A Trip with Your Wife movie review: More Than Blue director returns with another baffling romance drama
- Everything about this movie is absurd and excruciating, even the characters have no redeeming features
- Director Gavin Lin fails to tick any boxes with this story, and the twist at the end is just as pointless
1/5 stars
For someone who has dedicated his career to charting the course of love, Taiwanese writer-director Gavin Lin Hsiao-chien has a pretty baffling notion of romance.
His previous film, More Than Blue , saw a cancer patient hide his illness from his significant other and find her a husband so as not to hurt her feelings. Lin’s latest offering, A Trip with Your Wife, is another adaptation of an earlier Korean work, whose portrayal of true love – or just acceptable human behaviour – is equally askew.
Cheng (Bryan Chang Shu-hao) is an awful human being. After marrying his college sweetheart, Xiaoya (Michelle Chen Yan-hsi), he has spent the past decade desperately trying to get his business off the ground. But when faced with bankruptcy, he sells off his wife’s bakery without her permission. Understandably furious, Xiaoya files for divorce, but at that moment Ah Zhi (Rhydian Vaughan) re-enters their lives.
In college, Ah Zhi and Cheng were inseparable, and despite both having feelings for Xiaoya, Ah Zhi graciously aided Cheng in his efforts to woo her; Xiaoya’s feelings on the matter are not addressed, she is merely a trophy to be fought over and won.
After graduation, Ah Zhi disappeared overseas, but has now returned, diagnosed with terminal cancer, wielding a bizarre proposition for the couple. If Xiaoya agrees to come away with him on a trip to Canada, Ah Zhi will bail out Cheng’s company. Impulsively, Cheng agrees, infuriating his wife, who in turn jets off with Ah Zhi.
By the time Cheng comes to his senses, his wife and best friend are already winging their way to Quebec, so he jumps on the next flight to intercept them. Over the ensuing days, Cheng tails the couple through a number of idyllic Canadian locales, with the help of enthusiastic cab driver Ryan (Mike Sui), determined to catch them in flagrante.
Everything about A Trip with Your Wife is absurd and excruciating, none more so than the deplorable behaviour of all three principals. Chang is presented as the sympathetic hero, but at no time does his behaviour warrant anything more than our contempt. Ah Zhi may be dying, but destroying his best friend’s marriage is inexcusable. Similarly, Xiaoya is content to be objectified and threaten Cheng with divorce and infidelity rather than apply rational reasoning.
Just as with More Than Blue, the film’s climax is upended by a cop-out revelation that supposedly redeems this trio of rampaging sociopaths but, in truth, only exacerbates the utter redundancy of the entire exercise. A Trip with Your Wife may be the worst holiday ever.
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