Comfort: Make the Nights Count

It is like Before Sunrise, but with extreme photosensitivity. When the sun finally rises, it will cause Cameron Le physical pain, but he will still try to make the most of his brief nights with a client’s daughter in William Lu’s Comfort (trailer here), which releases today on VOD, presumably in honor of Jack Benny’s birthday.

Cameron has Erythropoietic protoporphyria (EPP), so he avoids the sun’s UV rays like the plague. He works the graveyard shift for a crummy 24-hour delivery service, pretty much guaranteeing he won’t meet anyone. Yet, one night, a regular customer, Martin the workaholic hot sauce magnate, hires Cameron to pick up his daughter from the airport. Initially, she is rather put off by Cameron’s slacker appearance, but she soon finds he is easy to talk to.

In fact, they spend most of the night together dining and chatting, but right when things are about to take a romantic turn, the rising sun forces him to abruptly end things. Yet, even if Jasmine understood his condition, it presumably would not change the things much, given she leaves for Japan and a one-year English-teaching commitment the following morning.

You could dismiss Comfort as another Linklater-inspired ships-passing rom-com, but Cameron’s necessarily nocturnal life gives it a darker, more melancholy and Edward Hopper-esque vibe. The chemistry of the two pseudo-romantic leads is also intoxicatingly potent. Chris Dinh (from Crush the Skull) and Julie Zhan are obviously photogenic, but they also convey a sense that each has put up with a lot of disappointments in life. Viewers will want to see them work something out somehow, even though we all realize their circumstances are too complicated for simplistic endings.

Lu’s treatment of Cameron’s EPP is issues is sensitive, but realistic. He nicely walks the line dividing bittersweet romance from maudlin sentimentality, throwing in some bonus food porn in the form of the gourmet “comfort food” Cameron periodically whips up. Yet, it is the smoky heat Zhan and Dinh generate that really drives the film. Recommended who enjoy Brief Encounter-like romantic drama, Comfort is now available on VOD platforms, including iTunes.

The Beauty Inside: New Face, Same Romantic Soul

Kim Woo-jin is a furniture designer, a sensitive hipster job if ever there was one. However, viewers will not envy his cool sounding gig. It is, after all, lonely work and Kim has some peculiarly unique issues that makes it feel ever more so. Shape-shifting romance gets a fresh spin in BAIK’s The Beauty Inside (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Ever since he was eighteen, Kim wakes up from each slumber in a different body. He has the same consciousness, but he could be man or woman, young or old, Korean or a foreigner. Naturally he dropped out of school and has never had a relationship past a one-night stand. Refusing to forget his high school friend, Sang-baek discovered Kim’s secret and now manages his exclusive custom-made furniture business. His otherwise lonely world is about to be rocked by Hong E-soo, the beautiful and knowledgeable sales associate at his favorite limited edition furniture store.

Falling hard, Kim will wait until he finally has another handsome face to ask her out. When she says yes, he presses his advantage as best he can, resisting sleep for several days, he manages to make quite an impression, but a crash is inevitable. Despite his disappearing act, Kim cannot make a clean break of it. Eventually he will try to explain himself when he is hired as a sales trainee while outwardly appearing to be a fragile young woman.

Up to a point, BAIK and co-screenwriters Kim Sun-jung and Park Jung-ye adapt Drake Doremus’s corporate-sponsored social-media produced film that you probably haven’t seen in the first place. However, they take the story far deeper, exploring the day-to-day issues that plague Kim’s relationship with the understanding Hong. Some challenges are obvious and comparatively pedestrian, but the overall stress on Hong is more serious than the cloistered Kim initially understands.

Beauty Inside sort of compares to the honestly not so bad Adam Sandler vehicle 50 First Dates, but it is more fantastical and more serious in the treatment of its premise. Some real thought went into the implications of Kim’s condition. BAIK also stays faithful to the conceit, by never using a consistent Kim Prime for voiceovers or scenes reflecting how he sees himself. Instead, we have to adapt to a new Kim right along with Hong.

As a result, Beauty Inside is like the Korean It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad World of intimate romantic fantasies. Not only do some of South Korea’s top stars play Kims, their agents were also press-ganged into service, along with most of the crew. Somehow, everyone seems to connect with the pathos of Kim’s unusual state. Even those appearing briefly manage to express deep angst and loneliness. Yet, none of the leading men Kims can hold a candle to Chun Woo-hee’s delicate vulnerability as the sales trainee Kim. It is also pretty impressive watching Han Hyo-joo’s smart and sophisticated Hong play off dozens of radically different Kims.

Beauty Inside would be one of the best rom-coms of the year, but it is much more rom than com. There are some slightly absurd situations, but what humor there is can never be described as low or broad. For what its worth, the film also seems to be genuinely interested in fine furniture, which is kind of nice. Highly recommended for those who enjoy romantic fantasies that come with surprising substance, The Beauty Inside opens this Friday (9/11) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

Only You: Remaking Norman Jewison in China

Whether you live in Pittsburgh or Shanghai, Italy still represents the land of romance. Evidently, in 1994, Venice was the place to be, but now Milan is the in romantic getaway. There are other differences, but this Chinese remake of the Norman Jewison romantic comedy is pretty faithful to its inspiration. Once again, a smitten man will fight against fate and his own name to win the woman he falls for in Zhang Hao’s Only You (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

On two separate occasions, fortune tellers predicted Fang Yuan would marry a man named Song Kunming. Such a specific prophecy would be great if she knew anyone named Song Kunming, but she doesn’t. After years of waiting for him to show up, she finally decides to settle for Xie  Wei, a boring dentist. However, tens days before their wedding, she happens to take a phone message from Xei Wei’s old school chum, Song Kunming, who is en route to Milan.

With her BFF in tow, Fang Yuan impulsively rushes off to Italy (conveniently having a couple soon-to-expire visas burning a hole in her pocket), to track down her man of destiny. On their first night, they follow the trail from their hotel to a man claiming to be Song Kunming. He is perfect her in every way, except he eventually admits he is not really Song Kunming. Attempting a Hail Mary, he offers to help her find the real Song, in hopes of besting him for her affections.

You hardly need to have seen the original Marisa Tomei-Robert Downey, Jr. vehicle to know how it will all end. Admittedly, Only You seems like a rather odd remake candidate, but it is apparently the sort of film that has grown in popular affection during its video and DVD life, following its ho-hum initial box-office. Of course, there are also probably a lot of us out there who can come to China Lion’s Only You unburdened with indelible images of Downey, Jr. in a gondola.

There is no question the scenery is just as lovely this time around and the cast is even more attractive. There is a little bit of shtick, but it is decidedly mild compared to rom-com norms. Granted, nobody does a lot of heavy lifting here, but Tang Wei pouts quite effectively as Fang Yuan (if you want to see her in a deeper, darker romantic drama, check out the elegant Late Autumn). Liao Fan tries to keep his cool as best he can as someone not named Song Kunming, but Su Yan kind of steals the show as the tough but sensitive (and sultry) best friend.

Fully capitalizing on Milan’s picturesque public squares and the verdant surrounding countryside, the new Only You definitely makes you want to visit Italy—with Tang Wei—or Su Yan—or if you prefer, Liao Fan. Obviously the end is predetermined (unless you think both Liao and Downey, Jr. might come up empty romantically), but it is a pleasant, low stress trip. Recommended as a date movie, Only You opens this Friday (7/24) in New York, at the AMC Empire.

NYAFF ’15: Café. Waiting. Love.

Coffee is the one drink that goes equally well with first dates and break-ups. As the setting for a Taiwanese rom com, a coffeehouse is inviting, accessible, and not too expensive to render on-screen. Best of all, if the film is a hit, the fictional brand can be licensed to a brick-and-mortar establishment. Such was the case with Chiang Chin-lin’s Café. Waiting. Love. (trailer here), which screens as part of the 2015 New York Asian Film Festival.

You might think you do not like rom-coms, but CWL, will still charm you silly. It all starts with the relentlessly cute Siying, a college freshman, who is nearly flattened by bus, but is saved by a handsome mystery man. Naturally quite smitten with him, she takes a part-time job at the titular coffeehouse he frequently patronizes, usually with a bored looking bombshell. Much to her frustration, Siying inadvertently catches the eye of A-Tuo, a seven-year senior, who has developed a scandalous reputation due to all the outrageous bets he has lost. He will soon be liberated from the roller-skates and bikini that have made him such a sight on campus, but he must still carry around a well preserved head of cabbage.

Adapting his own novel for the screen, Giddens Ko assembles an eccentric cast of dozens, including Brother Bao, a former actor known for gangster movies who now mediates mob disputes, Siying’s roommate A Zhu, who aspires to join the Iron Head Kung Fu club (which is exactly what you suspect it is), and A Bu-si, the sardonic barista who once dated A-Tuo, before coming out of the closet. In addition, there are frequent flashbacks, generous helpings of magical realism, and demitasse cup after demitasse cup of delicious looking coffee confections.

Evidently, Taiwan is the place to go for romantic comedies. Like Hou Chi-jan’s When a Wolf Falls in Love with a Sheep, CWL notches all the rom-com boxes, but it is wildly inventive visually and its narrative is considerably more sophisticated than the boy-meets-girl-botches-it-up-and-then-patches-things-up Hollywood formula.

CWL also boasts an infrequent screen appearance from the technically-still-retired-unless-she-feels-like-making-a-film Vivian Chow, who is absolutely smoldering and heartbreaking as the café proprietress. She is also perfectly matched by Yuan Chen as her younger self in flashbacks. As our POV character, Siying, Vivian Sung is enormously earnest and expressive. Happily, there is nothing shticky or clichéd about Megan Lai’s turn as the acerbic and reserved A Bu-si. In contrast, Bruce Lu-si Bu relentlessly tries to endear himself to the audience, much like a lovesick puppy, but his A-Tuo probably works better for the women in the audience.

CWL is propelled by a goofy sense of humor and a highly caffeinated energy level, but when Chiang and Chow lower the emotional boom, you will find yourself blubbering like a baby. Maybe the most satisfying “pure” romantic comedy since Hou’s Sheep, Café. Waiting. Love. is highly recommended for romantics and sentimental java drinkers when it screens this Thursday (7/9) at the SVA Theatre, as part of this year’s NYAFF.

The Film Critic: Plagued by Rom-Coms

What was the last artistically worthy romantic comedy you have seen? If you say When Harry Met Sally, Argentinian film reviewer Victor Tellez will want to kill you, or himself. He might let you get away with Bringing Up Baby—maybe. However anything that recycles those shopworn rom-com conventions produces nothing but bile from the jaded critic. One can therefore imagine Tellez’s surprise and conflicted responses when those same clichés start intruding upon his real life in director-screenwriter Hernán Guerschuny’s The Film Critic (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Tellez is happy to explain why Cassavetes represents real cinema, but day after day he slumps through press screenings of the latest sugar-coated tripe. After coffee with his equally snobbish colleagues, he proceeds to eviscerate the latest offensively inoffensive pop culture trifle in his newspaper review. At this point, Tellez has a rep for critical stinginess, but he is not exactly flush. That is why he is so put out when a Spanish expat grabs the perfect affordable apartment out from under him.

He finds it rather strange when their paths subsequently cross, but pursues Sofia hoping to talk her out of the flat. Instead, he finds himself on a colorful first date kind of thingy. You know exactly where the story is headed from here. There will be rain showers, contrived misunderstandings, walks in the park, and fireworks. Yet, Guerschuny scrupulously observes each formulaic element in order to give it an acerbic twist. In fact, this film just might surprise you and therefore Tellez.

As Tellez, Rafael Spregelburd is a paragon of reserve and restraint, so when he gives us something, it is significant. His chemistry with Dolores Fonzi’s defiantly upbeat and middlebrow Sofia is perfectly awkward, yet strangely believable. Telma Crisanti also gives the film periodic energy boasts, nicely playing off Spregelburd as his hipster video store clerk niece, even though her subplot becomes unwieldy over time.

Frankly, how could anyone find the trials and tribulations of a principled film critic anything less than compelling? Guerschuny’s script is smart enough to pass muster even with Tellez and his grumpy colleagues and as in any rom-com worth its salt, he incorporates some lovely Buenos Aires backdrops. It is a pleasure to watch it all come together. Recommended with real affection for those appreciate sophisticated comedies, The Film Critic opens this Friday (5/15) in New York, at the Cinema Village.

Korean Movie Night: King of Jokgu

It is one of the few government programs that worked as intended. The game of Jokgu was devised by the ROK military to promote physical fitness. Korean enlisted men immediately took to the soccer-volleyball hybrid and it also caught on with civilians. However, the snobbish remain disdainful of its roughneck roots. At least, that seems to be the case on the college campus where the recently discharged Hong Man-seob has re-enrolled. However, the older underclassmen is not about to give up on the game he was born to play in Woo Moon-gi’s King of Jokgu (trailer here), which screens this coming Tuesday as part of the free Korean Movie Night series at New York’s Asia Society.

Sergeant Hong was the best Jokgu player on his base, by a country mile. He is actually sort of sorry to leave the Jokgu court that was like a second home to him. However, he is eager to return to the School of Food and Nutrition, in the hope that he will meet his future wife there. He sure thinks he has found her when he lays eyes on An-na. She often has that effect on guys, but Hong has more stick-to-itiveness than most. Inconveniently, An-na is still hung up on Kang Min, a former member of the national soccer team, but when an injury ended his playing career, he basically gave up on himself.

Initially, An-na starts seeing Hong to spur some jealousy in Kang Min, but she has to admit the big lug is a heck of a nice guy. She even starts to enjoy hanging with his oddball friends. Together, they join Hong’s campaign to rebuild the campus Jokgu court. However, An-na will have to decide who she will root for when Hong’s team faces Kang Min’s squad in the university’s re-established Jokgu tournament.

Yes, King is desperately trying to be a crowd pleasing romantic comedy, but it succeeds. It is endearingly bittersweet and surprisingly restrained when it comes to the slapsticky shtick. It starts with Hong Man-seob, who is not merely another stereotypical gentle giant. The man has integrity and he will even stand-up to An-na from time to time. Ahn Jae-hong plays him just right: slightly goofy, but wearing his heart on his sleeve. He shares some delicately ambiguous chemistry with Hwang Seung-eon’s An-na, who also pleasantly exceeds and subverts our expectations.

Okay, maybe Kang Bong-seong and Hwang Mi-yeong can be a little embarrassing as Hong’s goony teammates, but the film is bolstered by several strong yet subtle key supporting turns. Lee Se-rang gives the film real heft as Hong’s off campus steakhouse employer and Park Ho-san nicely portrays the evolution of Hong’s initially judgmental roommate Hyeong-gook.

King has been programmed as part of a focus on emerging young Korean directors, with good reason. Woo exhibits a surefooted sense when to ease up on the physical humor and when to double down on the well-earned emotional payoff. As a result, it is impossible to dislike this film. Seriously, it can’t be done. Highly recommended, King of Jokgu screens (for free) this coming Tuesday (4/14) at the Asia Society in New York.

5 to 7: The Rules of Infidelity, According to the French

The French are so sophisticated about love and sex. Wannabe literary hipsters are so not. Yet, for reasons bafflingly obscure, a retired French model picks an aspiring New Yorker short story writer for her evening dalliances. They can only meet for two hours in the early evening because according to French tradition that is the time when husbands and wives might be indisposed without arousing suspicion. Of course, her unlikely lover has trouble with their arrangement because he is so hopelessly bourgeoisie. There is culture clash on the Upper Eastside in Victor Levin’s 5 to 7 (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

It is pretty clear from his constant bittersweet narration, if Brian Bloom ever made it as writer, it is because he had his heart ripped out and stomped on. The glamorous Arielle looks like the perfect woman to do it. Much to Bloom shock (and the audience’s disbelief), the slightly older French woman is receptive when he awkwardly approaches he outside the St. Regis. She rather enjoys his earnest geekiness and recommends he meet her again the following week at the same time and place. That would be after five, of course. She makes no secret of her marriage, but stresses they must follow the rules.

We eventually learn Bloom was raised Jewish, but he is more uptight about this sort of thing than a repressed Protestant with body issues. Just having some ships-in-the-night fun is beyond him, but Arielle’s charm and beauty have him bewitched. She even introduces him to her gracious editor at FSG (you won’t find any Harlequin drones at their shindigs). Although it is unfathomable for the audience, everyone believes in Bloom’s potential, but he jeopardizes everything by falling in love with Arielle.

On the one hand, Levin captures a vivid sense of why New York is such an alluring city in the first place. When he goes for pure elegance and ambiance, 5 to 7 is rather entertaining like a one night assignation, heavy on champagne and light on consequences. Unfortunately, Bloom’s narration will have viewers pulling their hair out and his dialogue often sounds like it was written with a laugh track in mind. As it happens, Levin has extensive television credits with shows like Mad About You and Dream On.

According to imdb, less than ten years separate co-leads Anton Yelchin and Bérénice Marlohe, but he looks about fourteen years old and she looks incredible. James Bond had good reason to be upset when Javier Bardem killed her character in Skyfall. She is trés charmant and makes her scenes with Yelchin work, despite the glib, sitcommy banter he is stuck with. As the suave Valéry, Lambert Wilson makes Charles Boyer look like Walter Brennan, but he is also shockingly compelling when defending the rules and rituals required to keep up appearances. However, when Glenn Close and Frank Langella show up as Bloom’s bickering parents, we find ourselves expecting the laugh track to kick in again.

Levin is clearly aiming for old fashioned romance and the exquisite regret of love lost. We could use more of that sort of vibe in films today, but 5 to 7 would have worked better if he kept it simpler, straighter, and quieter. It should play quite well on television, but for those craving a decidedly nostalgic rom com, 5 to 7 opens tomorrow (4/3) in New York, at the IFC Center.

Anita Ho: Meeting the Parents

What kid wouldn’t want to date a Power Ranger? What guy wouldn’t be interested in a woman like Anita Lee? Maybe one who has met her parents. Harry Ho is about to have the dubious pleasure, but since he is Korean rather than Chinese, it will be a difficult getting-to-know-you process in Steve Myung’s Anita Ho (trailer here), which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

Harry is really a Korean Oh, but when his family came through immigration, it was changed to a Chinese-sounding (and more easily mocked) Ho. After a while, they got tired of fighting it. Unfortunately, this leads to some initial awkwardness when he first meets his girlfriend Anita’s parents, the Lees—and it only goes downhill from there. Needless to say, they want their daughter to marry a good Chinese boy. That means a doctor or a lawyer. An employed writer just does not cut it.

Technically, Ho is a freelancer, who quit his gig on Lee’s “Power Raiders” kiddie action show to write his screenplay. That has not been working out so well. At least, his relationship with Lee has been fulfilling. In fact, he intends to pop the question while they are visiting for her special thirtieth birthday banquet, but her parents will do everything they can to belittle and undermine him.

Just about anyone who was ever raked over the coals by their date’s dad on prom night should be able to relate to Anita Ho on some level. Of course, they never had to face George Cheung (the notorious Lt. Tay in Rambo: First Blood II and senior member of the Awesome Asian Bad Guys). Unimpressed with the mild-mannered Ho, Mr. Lee will actually try to fix his daughter up with a former classmate. Yes, he happens to be a doctor.

So maybe we have all been there, but director-co-writer Myung just cranks up the cringe factor when appearing as Ho. By the time the film is over that poor cat’s back is covered in “kick me” signs. He has some pleasant romantic chemistry with co-writer Lina So Myung, but it eventually becomes difficult to buy into them as a couple, while he wallows in humiliation and she essentially lets it happen. The Myungs also apparently dig romantic montages, because they are not stingy with them (though they really probably should have been).

Lina So Myung truly lights up the screen as Lee, while Cheung and Elizabeth Sung have their moments as the demanding parents. However, it is Kenny Waymack, Jr. who gives us something to latch onto as Lee’s Filipino brother-in-law and tough talking audience surrogate, Tyson Bautista. It is nice to see a film advocate inclusiveness, but some of the broad humor falls a bit flat. Frankly, the film would have been better served by a little more romantic courtship and a little less shtick. It is also cool to see the telegenic Myungs making their own opportunities. Nevertheless, Anita Ho is strictly a date-night kind of movie when it opens this Friday (2/27) at the Laemmle Playhouse 7 in Pasadena.

Love on the Cloud: Angelababy and Mo Chou the Shar Pei

Screenwriter Sha Guo will write treatments for just about every sort of contemporary Chinese film a doofus character such as himself might appear in. There will be romantic comedy, tragedy, compulsive social networking, and a surprisingly credible haunting. Still, the big question will be whether he gets the girl or the dog, or both, or neither in director-screenwriter Gu Chang-wei’s Love on the Cloud (trailer here) which is now playing in New York.

Sha Guo and his buddies, aspiring cinematographer Ma Dai and would be matinee idol-producer Huang Xaigang, the so-called “Three Dreamers” have just reeled in an investor for their first film, Living with the Werewolf. Ms. Ma the beef magnate just wants a couple script revisions: product placement for her Little Bull company. No problem, they can do that. In this case, “they” means Sha Guo. After a hard session of rewriting, he hits the social media apps looking for a hook-up. Instead, up-and-coming auto-show model Chen Xi exploits his “Sad Shar Pei” handle, suckering him into dog-sitting her furrowed browed Mo Chou. Of course, he agrees, hoping it will lead to bigger and hotter things. However, both Chen Xi’s dog-sitting and Ms. Ma’s rewrites will become a constant in his increasingly frustrated life.

Given its title and genre, HK film fans might assume Love on the Cloud is the next installment in Pang Ho-cheung’s Love in a Puff-Love in the Buff series, but Cherie Yu and Jimmy Cheung will not be breaking up and getting back together again, at least not right now. Cloud is actually Beijing-set and Mainland produced, featuring a star turn from Angelababy. About a billion people already knew the model-turned-actress was a star, but with Cloud she successfully transitions from perky teen roles (Love in Space, All’s Well Ends Well 2010 and 2011) to a legit romantic lead. She smokes up the screen and leaves poor Michael Chen and his hapless Sha Guo looking small and deflated on-screen.

Still, when he is satirizing the Chinese film business with the other two Dreamers, Chen is a good sport, keeping the material remarkably grounded, all things considered, by minimizing the shtick and the mugging. In fact, the entire cast earns props because Gu throws the kitchen sink at them, but never wastes much time on dry, boring transitions. Frankly, it is hard to believe how much of the film works. Even the horror movie segments, necessitated by another batch of rewrites for Ms. Ma, are actually sort of creepy and very true to genre conventions.

Angelababy is radiant throughout Cloud and Chen keeps plugging away, but good old Mo Chou just sort of steals the picture rather effortlessly. The camera loves the Shar Pei, but he never resorts to cheap tricks to look cute. So yes, give the dog credit for subtlety of his performance (would it be going too far to compare him favorably with Meryl Streep’s excessive theatrics in Ossage County? It’d be true.) Regardless, there are enough laughs mixed with Angelababy’s glamour and Mo Chou’s furry charm to keep Cloud chugging along at a good clip. Recommended for those who like a good doggie rom-com with a little bit of an edge, Love on the Cloud is now playing in New York at the AMC Empire.

100 Days: Romantic Comedy & Traditional Rituals

The natural beauty and quaint charm of the Matsu Islands make them a perfect tourist destination. The spotty cell-phone reception and lack of wi-fi could also be attractive to visitors, but it is highly inconvenient for full-time residents. A hot shot telecom exec has returned to his home island to scuttle a fiber optic development plan. While he is there, he will pencil in his mother’s funeral. However, he never bargained on the local tradition requiring his marriage a little more than three months after the ceremony. Romance and ritual threaten to stall his career in Henry Chan’s 100 Days (trailer here), which opens this Friday in Los Angeles.

Wu Bo Dan felt rejected by his mother when she re-married and packed the teen off to be educated in America. Frankly, he was fine with leaving, because he would only miss his ambiguous girlfriend Xiao Wei. Now a high-flying dealmaker, Wu is not sure how to react when his stepfather comes bearing the bad news. He also brought Wu one of his mother’s favorite chickens, confusing the corporate shark even more.

Once Wu finally arrives on fictional North Island, chicken in tow, he begrudgingly attends her funeral. Of course, he is having none of the get-married-in-100-days mandate. Fortunately, his step-brother Zhen Fong is willing to fulfill Wu’s ceremonial duties in his stead. Unfortunately, he has a five-year arranged engagement with Xiao Wei. That does not sit right with Wu, but she does not want to hear it.

100 Days is pretty much headed exactly where you think it is, but it has the good sense to lose the chicken before the second act starts in earnest. It is also a ridiculously good looking film. The island is spectacularly cinematic, sort of like the Village in The Prisoner, but with shrines dedicated to the ocean deity Mazu. The cast is also obscenely attractive, even including Xiao Wei’s shy, unlucky-in-love bridesmaid Yu Jen, played by the drop-dead gorgeous Julianne Chu. So yes, 100 Days will definitely make viewers want to visit Peikan Island’s Chinpi village, where the film was shot.

Model-turned-actress Tracy Chou plays Xiao Wei with demur intelligence, somehow managing to sell her martyr complex. Likewise, Chu’s turn as Yu Jen is touchingly sweet and wholly likable. Aboriginal actor Soda Voyu (seen in Seediq Bale) largely minimizes the shtick as the unflaggingly earnest and only slightly goofy Zhen Fong. On the other hand, poor Johnny Lu’s Wu gets quite a bit of slapstick comeuppance and never really feels like he connects with the other characters, except maybe briefly with Tsai Ming-hsui, who invests his step-father with a quiet dignity that classes up the joint.

100 Days never really tries to transcend the rom-com genre, but it observes the category conventions in moderation. Chan (whose American television credits include episodes of Scrubs and the better-than-its-reputation Kitchen Confidential) keeps things moving along at an easy mid-tempo and cinematographer makes everything sparkle in the warm sunlight. If you are looking for niceness in a film, it has a bounteous spread. Recommended as a safe date film, 100 Days opens this Friday (12/12) in the Los Angeles area, at the Laemmle Playhouse 7.

Women Who Flirt: Just Friends with Zhou Xun?

Considering she looks like Zhou Xun, Angie really shouldn’t have to resort to a lot of game-playing. Unfortunately, she has carried a torch for Marco, her colleague and former classmate so long, he now takes her for granted. When a flirty game-player stakes a claim to the oblivious platonic friend, Angie will have to learn how to fight fire with fire. The battle will be joined in Pang Ho-cheung’s Women Who Flirt (trailer here), which opens this Wednesday in New York.

Shocked to learn her longtime best friend is suddenly serious about a woman who is not herself, Angie calls on her eye-lash batting chum May to form a kitchen cabinet of proud Shanghai flirters to advise her. However, she finds their recommended baby talk and helpless damsel-in-distress routines absolutely vapid. She is just not equipped for this fight and her rival Hailey knows it. Still, if she can get dumb old Marco alone for a romantic getaway in Taiwan, she just might have a puncher’s chance.

Yes, there are similarities between Flirt and My Best Friend’s Wedding and its tragically romantic Chinese-Korean reconfiguration, A Wedding Invitation, but Zhou’s Angie is a protagonist we can really get behind. Her withering stares and palpable disgust at the Sex in the City antics going on around her are often quite funny and highly sympathetic. Frankly, she is just too cool for everyone else in the film.

Of course, Flirt will eventually settle into a sentimental rom-com, but at least it takes a rainy day trip to the Ju Ming Museum, which looks incredible (so good tourist tip there). In fact, Zhou and Ju are just about enough to carry the film across the finish line. Sonia Sui certainly looks like a deceptively cute femme fatale and shows some convincing claws when the time comes. Still, it is hard to see why they would fight over a blockhead like Marco, played rather woodenly by Huang Xiaoming. In contrast, Xie Yilin constantly kicks up the energy while inhaling scenery as May, the Obiwan of flirters.

 

Pang’s films certainly come in a variety of flavors. Instead of a naughty screwball comedy like Vulgaria, a gory satire like Dream Home, or a sensitive family drama like Aberdeen, Flirt is most closely akin to his reasonably mature rom-coms, such as Love in the Buff. It is too bad this one does not depart further from genre conventions, because Zhou and her character deserve something more outside-the-box. Regardless, she still commands the screen. Recommended for fans of Zhou and romantic comedy in general, Women Who Flirt opens this Wednesday (11/26) in New York at the AMC Empire, from China Lion Entertainment.

They Came Together—But Can They Stay Together for a Sequel

Last night the Tribeca Film Festival hosted free screenings of When Harry Met Sally in all five boroughs (except Brooklyn, where winds were just too windy). For some reason, New Yorkers collectively chose the rom-com for Tribeca’s Film For All promotion, even though we could all more easily relate to New York films like Death Wish and The Exterminator. If you haven’t seen it by now, you’re probably never going to. However, those who remember when Billy Crystal and Meg Ryan were movie stars will appreciate most of the gags in David Wain’s They Came Together (trailer here), opening this Friday in New York, which is practically like another character in the film.

Should you doubt it, Joel and Molly will assert the New Yorkiness of their romance right from the start, as they recount their story for another couple with the profound misfortune to be having dinner with them. As the flashback narrative commences, Joel is about to break up with Tiffany, his hot on the outside, icy on the inside girlfriend. Since Molly is still smarting from her last break-up, their mutual friends want to fix them up (at a Halloween party).

Instead, they bicker like cats and dogs. It hardly helps matter when Molly learns Joel works for the candy store conglomerate trying to force her cutesy corner store out of business. Of course they will still fall for it, but they will take turns sabotaging their budding relationship.

Wain and co-writer Michael Showalter are so busy skewering romantic comedy clichés they do not even bother wasting time on boring stuff like characterization. Their humor whipsaws back and forth between droll satire and unrepentantly naughty slapstick. It is often quite funny, but after a while viewers will realize there is nothing for them to invest in emotionally. Even Mel Brooks classics (the gold standard of movie spoofs) had a bit of heart anchoring them. TC Together is really more like a serial skit or a web series than a movie. Still, you have to respect Wain and Showalter’s willingness to tip over sacred cows and subvert viewers expectations by twisting the very rom-com conventions they are sending up.

As Molly and Joel, Amy Poehler and Paul Rudd are game for just about any joke in questionable taste, but they are still rather low wattage when it comes to screen charisma. On the other hand, Cobie Smulders’ Tiffany is appropriately cold and decorative, while audiences may never look at SVU’s Christopher Meloni in the same way after his outrageous turn as Joel’s boss, Roland. Nora Jones also has an amusing cameo as herself, but if you do not remember when MTV and VH-1 played music videos in the 1980s, you probably won’t get it.

TC Together is consistently entertaining, but defiantly shallow. It is like having ice cream for dinner. It is sweet and gives you a rush, but a steak would be more satisfying. Recommended for those who miss movie spoofs that do not require turning off nine tenths of your brain to endure (hello, Wayanses), They Came Together opens this Friday (6/27) in New York (which is very much like another character in the film) at the Cinema Village.

Shirin in Love: Trying to Avoid a Big Fat Iranian Wedding

The affluent members of southern California’s Iranian-American community like to drink, dance, and party. They are way more fun than an army of Brooklyn hipsters, but parents still have very specific ideas about who their grown children should marry. One disorganized writer develops very different notions of her own in Ramin Niami’s Shirin in Love (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

To be honest, Shirin is more of an aspiring writer, but at least she cranks out book reviews for her overbearing mother Maryam’s lifestyle glossy. She also has trouble holding her liquor—something the sensitive brooder William soon learns first hand, by sheer chance. Having seen her at her sloppiest, he is rather surprised when she turns up in Northern California to interview Rachel Harson, his novelist mom. Both mother and son take a shine to the scatterbrained bombshell, but he is reluctant to admit it. As a further complication, she also happens to have a mother-approved fiancé and he has a mousy long-term girlfriend.

Shirin and William are so obviously head-over-heels, they will do all kinds of negligent things to sabotage their budding relationship. Of course, Shirin’s Mother Dearest is not about to stand by and watch her toss away her engagement to a plastic surgeon. Still, the colorful cast of supporting characters will help keep SIL on a standard rom-com trajectory.

Aside from a benign reference to the old country back-when, writer-director Niami never troubles viewers with dire circumstances of post-Revolutionary Iran, which is fair enough. People have to get on with their lives and Shirin’s family is about as far removed from the Islamist state as you can get. However, lead actress Nazanin Boniadi has evidently seen real life hardships of a different sort. According to Vanity Fair allegations supported by Paul Haggis, she was poorly treated by the Scientology machine when they auditioned her to be a certain actor’s sanctioned squeeze.

Frankly, you have to question his taste. SIL is pretty conventional stuff, but Boniadi just lights up the screen. On paper, her character’s persistent ditziness would look potentially tiresome, but she plays her with real warmth and charisma. She also has some nice scenes with Marshall Manesh as her hen-pecked father, Nader. Letterman’s old stand-up crony George Wallace similarly makes his shtick work as Officer Washington, the gruff old softie with literary ambitions. Amy Madigan is relentlessly earthy and likable as the mothering Harson, but not to an irredeemably annoying extent. However, Riley Smith’s William is so dour and lifeless it is hard to fathom the attraction, even if characters keep telling each other how good looking he supposedly is.

SIL is sort of like a Beverly Hills reality show or sitcom, with some heart and a promising star turn from Boniadi. It is all very bright and frothy, but never delves too deeply into the human condition. Recommended mostly for those looking for an inclusive, non-taxing date movie, Shirin in Love opens this Friday (3/14) in New York at the AMC Empire.

Beijing Love Story: Valentine’s Appropriate

Beijing is a lot like New York. It is a tough city, but you can still find some wildly romantic backdrops there. Five couples of varying ages and degrees of matchedness will go through love’s ups and downs all over the Chinese capital, as well as during a romantic side-trip to Greece in Chen Sicheng’s Beijing Love Story (trailer here), which opens tomorrow in New York.

Unlike his married boss Wu Zheng, Chen Feng is a decent enough guy. Unfortunately, he does not have much money or legal Beijing residency. Nonetheless, the outrageously cute Shen Yan still falls for him at a hipster singles’ party. Can their romance survive the pressures of money woes and a surprise pregnancy? Her wealthy ex and the painful in media res opening say no, but viewers should not put too much stock in either.

Meanwhile, Wu’s tomcatting is about to catch up him. Somewhat disappointed by his lack of faithfulness, his wife Zhang Lei tries to take a page from his playbook, possibly complicating the life of her boss and platonic friend, Liu Hui in the process. He has an assignation of his own to worry about. He is meeting his mysterious mistress, Jia Ling, for a weekend in Greece. Since the two lovers are played by “Big Tony” Leung Ka Fai and Carina Lau, you would expect things to heat up here and they do.

Liu will play Jia’s games in Greece, but he is always serious about being Liu Xingyang’s father. However, she is rather upset with him, because he will not allow her to appear on a national talent show with her string ensemble. Smitten Song Ge is happy to lend a sympathetic ear and maybe even her transportation money if he can earn enough from after school jobs and maybe borrow some from his grandfather, “Old Wang.” Of course, Wang has his romantic difficulties as well. His cousin keeps fixing him on with blind dates, but his heart is never in it, even with a recently returned expat, who should be well out of his league.

Without question, Beijing works best when it follows the Liu family. Leung and Lau have scorching chemistry and the Greek locale inspires the film’s most visually stylish sequences. In contrast, the innocence and exuberance of Song’s courtship of Liu Xingyang is like a breath of fresh cinematic air. As teenaged Liu and Song, Nana Ou Yang and Liu Haoran come across like good kids at heart, but with massive screen presence.

The other interrelated couples are not necessarily dead weight, but they do not deliver the same satisfaction.  Frankly, Yu Nan is absolutely terrific as the wronged Zhang, but her storyline functions more as a transition from Chen & Shen to Liu & Jia than as a fully developed arc in its own right. Wang Qinxiang is also surprising moving as Old Wang, but Chen really pulls out the manipulative stops for the closer. He also shows big city Beijingers at their most annoying during the initial tale of his namesake (played by the writer-director). Tong Liya’s Shen has all kinds of charisma, but there is only so much she can do for this underwhelming slacker love story.

It is not often we have a Valentine’s appropriate film to recommend for February 14^th, but this year we have one. Based on Chen’s hit television series of the same name, Beijing Love Story hits more ambiguous notes than viewers might expect, but that is a good thing. Ultimately, it is the veteran superstars (Leung and Lau) and the ridiculously young looking stars of the future (Nana Ou Yang and Liu Haoran) who really sell it. Recommended for Valentine viewing, Beijing Love Story opens tomorrow in New York at the AMC Empire, from China Lion Entertainment.

Love is in the Air: Ludivine Sagnier’s First Rom-Com

It is a pretty good rom-com premise, but you wouldn’t want to be seated near a couple like this in real life. When two former lovers fitting themselves sitting next to each other on a trans-Atlantic flight, they revisit the end of their affair in Alexandre Castagnetti’s Love is in the Air (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Julie is a sculptor with major jealousy and self-esteem issues. It is not clear what Antoine does, besides womanizing. Obviously, they are polar opposites, so they must be meant for each other. For a while, they really gave it a go, but now Julie is winging her way back to France to marry her predictably buttoned down fiancé.

They seem to have chemistry, so how did it all go wrong? Of course, there were complicating factors, like her career frustrations and judgmental mother.  Antoine similarly had to juggle counseling sessions with his nebbish best friend Franck and the unwelcome attentions of an ex-girlfriend’s nymphish little sister. Mix together and let the farce commence.

Right, so there are no real surprises in store for viewers here—no surreal mindtrips from left field or third act revelations. Air follows the tried and true formula, but its execution is silky smooth. Right from the start, the soundtrack wins us over with Nancy Wilson’s lightly swinging rendition of “I Wish You Love” (which is so much more effective than more maudlin versions). Frankly, Castagnetti is rather shameless milking Paris for all its romantic worth. Even Julie finds it clichéd when they have their first date at the Eiffel Tower, but it works nonetheless.

Ludivine Sagnier has probably never looked lovelier on-screen, but Julie’s assorted anxieties wear a little thin over time. In contrast, Nicolas Bedos looks like a gigolo from central casting, but he actually has his redemptive moments digging out from under all Antoine’s jerkweed behavior down the stretch.  Of course they look good together, but they do develop a considerable amount of romantic X-factor during their courtship scenes.

Air is not exactly a towering accomplishment in cinema, but it is a can’t-miss date movie. If things are working, its romantic trappings will keep the good vibe going.  If not, folks can ogle the attractive cast. Recommended as the sugary confection it is intended to be, Love is in the Air opens this Friday (1/31) in New York at the Quad Cinema.

Taiwan Film Days ’13: Apolitical Romance

She takes her cue from government propaganda, whereas he takes inspiration from Gundam.  Advantage: his.  They will bicker constantly as a mutual attraction slowly but steadily develops in Hsieh Chun-yi’s cross-border rom-com Apolitcal Romance (trailer here), which screens during the San Francisco Film Society’s annual Taiwan Film Days.

Like any self-respecting slacker, Chen Yu-zheng (a.k.a. A-Zheng) took a government job.  Normally, it is not terribly demanding, but his boss is on his case over a report on various differences of etiquette for the mainland and Taiwan.  He has a week to fix it, but he has no clue when it comes to the PRC.  As fate would dictate, Qin Lang is in Taipei for a week, hoping to track down Chen Guang, her grandmother Li Huan’s fondly remembered lover from sixty years back.  They will sort of come to an arrangement.

Loud and argumentative, Qin Lang will not get very far on her own, but Chen was born to navigate Taiwan’s bureaucracy.  Before you can say “red tape” he has a list of Nationalist veterans born in Li Huan’s home province.  As they follow-up each lead, the sparks start to fly, but never past a certain point.  Apolitical is all about possibilities rather than consummations.  By rom-com standards, Hsieh’s film is wildly ambiguous, but that is its real charm.  We cannot even say definitely whether they ever will be a proper couple, but they clearly are in each other’s heads.

Apolitical also offers a fascinating look into the perceived differences between the Republic and mainland China, presenting the Beijinger as reflexively jingoistic and the Taiwanese Chen as a meek geek.  However, Hsieh never really delves into specific ideological differences.  Instead, he aims for nostalgic romanticism with every story of separated love Chen and Qin Ling hear in their quest for Chen Guang.

Bryan Chang and Huang Lu are ridiculously attractive would-be maybe lovers, but they never get too cute or cloying.  They get some rather sensitive support from many of the Chen Guangs, particularly Chien Te-men as number four.  Not surprisingly, there is an episodic quality to the film that mostly works quite well, but Hsieh pushes his luck with a flawed subplot involving Qin Ling’s former lover.  In contrast, Chen’s visit to his disgraced father packs some quiet power precisely because it is not over written or over played.

Apolitical is never as achingly emotional as Hsieh’s exquisitely poignant short Braid, but its restraint is a virtue.  It is a rom-com, more or less, but it is also a wistful commentary on the absurdly arbitrary things that separate people, like borders, ideologies, and health exchanges.  Recommended for those who prefer curve ball movie romances rather than a happily-ever-after fastball over the plate, Apolitical Romance screens this Sunday (11/3) at the Vogue Theatre as part of this year’s installment of the SFFS’s Taiwan Film Days.

Hotel Normandy: Everybody Looks More Attractive Here

Hotels are convenient locations for romantic farces.  There are plenty of doors to slam and beds to jump into.  The friends of an attractive, still relatively young widow do not think she is doing enough of the latter.  They think they have a plan to help, but it only leads to misunderstandings in Charles Nemes’ Hotel Normandy (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Alice Necorre is a good friend and hard worker, but she has yet to start dating again.  Her private banking colleagues think they have the answer.  They have booked her a long weekend in the famous luxury hotel, so she can enjoy Deauville’s Contemporary Art Biennial.  As a surprise bonus, they have arranged (extorted) a client in arrears to whisk her off her feet for a madcap night of passion.  Unfortunately, when illness sidelines her would-be seducer, he sends his clumsy brother in his place.

Necorre is having none of Yvan Carlotti and his weird mugging, especially when she meets the sophisticated art dealer, Jacques Delboise.  She falls for him so hard, it scares her friends back home into coming clean.  Right, you can see how this will lead to confusion.  Throw in a misplaced valuable painting and you ought to have all the elements in place.

Yet, to a great extent, Normandy plays like a bedroom farce made by people embarrassed by bedroom farces.  It is far better at the rom than the com, which is an unusual mix.  The quiet moments work rather nicely but its attempts at broad comedy lack the necessary manic conviction.

Still, it is refreshing to watch a movie romance unfold between reasonably mature and responsible grown-ups, especially one executed with some charm.  Frankly, it is great to see the scruffy headed, slightly graying Eric Elmosnino (best known as the lead in Gainsbourg: a Heroic Life) as a leading man. His screen chemistry with Héléna Noguerra’s Lecorre is quite appealing.  On the flip side, it is sometimes painful watching Ary Abittan literally grin and bear it as Carlotti.

Much like Zhang Ziyi star vehicle My Lucky Star, Normandy features plenty of picturesque scenery, stylish costumes, and an impossibly attractive supporting cast.  The soundtrack even includes some Afro-Cuban music.  It ambles along easily enough, without ever really generating a lot of heat or tension.  Not quite as rich as Populaire, but considerably more rewarding than The Stroller Strategy, it should suit those with a taste for frothier French imports.  Recommended for fans of low impact rom coms, Hotel Normandy opens this Friday (9/27) in New York at the Village East.

The Wedding Palace: Love is a Curse

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.  You’ve got a big ethnic family and perhaps a wedding.  Wait, there’s also a curse.  Frankly, Jason Kim might be better off with a gruesome death than the women his mother tries to fix him up with.  However, hope might be arriving from Korea in Christine Yoo’s The Wedding Palace (trailer here), which opens this Friday in New York.

Thanks to the scandalous behavior of bridegroom hundreds of years again, a painful fate befalls all the men in Kim’s family who are not married before they turn thirty.  At least, so he has always been told.  He is twenty-nine and his fiancée, Jinnie Park, just jilted him at the altar. It is embarrassing for Kim, especially since his parents are convinced he is now doomed.

Even when traveling to Seoul on business, Kim cannot escape his mother’s Hail Mary blind dates.  Yet, one particularly miserable attempt in a karaoke club brings Kim face-to-face with Song Na-young, a very attractive colleague who can sing like an angel.  Despite their halting start, the two commence a passionate long distance love affair.  Soon he Skypes the question and she accepts.  Yet as soon as she lands in L.A. he discovers something about her that will provide him and his family the opportunity to act like first-rate jackasses.  Will true love rebound?  Should the stunning Song even allow him a second chance?  Have you seen a romantic comedy before?

Palace might be formulaic, but most red-blooded viewers will fall head over handlebars for Song during their karaoke sequence.  Old Boy star Kang Hye-jung sounds about as comfortable with English as most of us would performing Shakespeare translated into Esperanto, but she has presence—that “it” factor. 

As Kim, co-producer Brian Tee (the corrupt prosecutor in The Wolverine) makes a likable enough straight man and a convincing heel.  Mad-TV’s Bobby Lee contributes a few laughs and a good measure of energy as Kim’s best friend Kevin.  Unfortunately, Margaret Cho is not any funnier in her cameo as a shaman than she ever has been before.  Perhaps more frustrating, Joy Osmanski, who was so charming in Dave Boyle’s White on Rice, is largely wasted in the thankless role of Park.

For an indie rom-com, Palace is quite a nicely put together package, featuring some handsome cinematography (most notable during the Korean scenes) and an upbeat score composed by David Benoit.  Even though we have more or less seen it all before, Kang makes it hard not to like. Pleasant but predictable, The Wedding Palace is recommended as a date movie for committed couples when it opens this Friday (9/27) in New York at the AMC Empire.