Break-up
are often measured numerically. There are fifty ways to leave your lover and
ten things I hate about you. The underappreciated Eva Lui comes up with
seventy-seven reasons to dump Adam Cheung’s sorry butt. He will read them for
himself when he comes across her journal in Herman Yau’s 77 Heartbreaks (trailer here), which screens during the San Francisco
Film Society’s annual Hong Kong Cinema series.
Lui
understood Cheung had family issues, so she cut him a lot of slack. To
antagonize his father, Cheung quite his job as a solicitor, becoming a
kick-boxing instructor instead. Yet, one day, Lui up and leaves. This deeply
depresses Cheung, but he doesn’t do any real soul searching over it. In fact,
he passively falls into a relationship with Mandy, a love-struck student. As it
happens, she will be the first to read Lui’s “77 Heartbreaks” journal, a volume
purchased from the mysterious Heartbeat Shutter store. There almost seems to be
a bit of magic to it. Regardless, it crystallizes Lui’s thoughts and gives
Mandy fair warning.
Arguably,
the various Chinas are becoming the world’s leading producer of rom-coms.
Seriously, when was the last a Hollywood relationship comedy justified its
space on a hard-drive? However, despite its rom-com elements, 77 Heartbreaks is neither very rom or
com. Instead, Erica Li’s adaptation of her own novel is more of a tragedy and a
withering indictment of male complacency. Although, in all honesty, there are
not going to be a lot of guys willing to defend Cheung, who rather revoltingly,
backs into a relationship with a woman just as attractive as Lui and even more
eager to make it work, yet he treats her like dirt.
Strong
and sensitive, Charlene Choi is terrific as Lui, while you could say Pakho Chow
fully commits as an actor, making Cheung as self-centered and un-self-aware as
could ever be humanly possible. However, Michelle Wai’s achingly vulnerable
performance as Mandy will really make the audience want to line up to beat
Cheung with their soap wrapped in their towels, in the manner of Full Metal Jacket. Not surprisingly,
veteran Anthony Wong steals a few scenes as Lui’s boss, Solicitor Pak and Kara
Hui cranks up the grace and dignity as Lui’s mother. Yet, the film’s secret
trump card is Francis Ng as Shutter, the eccentric but profoundly humane photographer
and silent partner in Heartbeat Shutter.