This is a splendid film about the lost of love, the memory of love, the pursuit of love, and the truth of love. It tells a triangle love story. What I like about this film is not how touching the triangle love is, but how touching this story is told.
It's directed by a famous Hong Kong's director Peter Chan, and staring by the handsome Takeshi Kaneshiro ("House of Flying Daggers," "Turn Left Turn Right"), the talented Zhou Xun ("The Little Chinese Seamstress," "Beijing Bicycle"), the remarkable singer and actor Jacky Cheung, and the Korean heartthrob Ji Jin-hee.
Ten years ago, in Beijing, a Hong Kong film student Lin Jian-dong (Takeshi Kaneshiro) fell in love with an energetic girl Sun Na (Zhou Xun). Sun Na left Jian-dong to pursue her dream to be a movie star, leaving Jian-dong devastated. Ten years later, both of them become big movie stars and their paths cross again when they co-star in a musical. However, the musical's director Nie Wen (Jacky Cheung) also loves Sun Na. Will the old love prevail or will it simply break more hearts? At the beginning, when the music and dancing started, I thought this film is another Hollywood style cheesy musical. I am not a big musical fan, so I got a little worried. That concern quickly disappeared because the heart wrenching story and the marvelous performance settled inside me, deeply. The music and the songs actually move me profoundly. The film brilliantly blends together the musical which two lead characters are filming and the movie itself. The characters are enacting their love affairs through the musical they are playing.
I am glad that Takeshi Kaneshiro speaks perfect Chinese in the film, not like how Zhang Ziyi speaks English in "Memoirs of a Geisha." Heck, even Ji Jin-hee speaks darn good Chinese (perhaps dubbed).
I shed so many tears together with those characters during the screening of this film. I wonder why. Perhaps, love?
