Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong
 
 

Director: Wych Kaosayananda
Year:  2015
Rating: 6.5

This is the second film I have seen from director Emily Ting, the only two feature films she has directed in fact. The other one was Go Back to China about the relationship between a daughter and her long-distance father. Her film style is the antithesis of most modern films. Gentle talkative relaxed films of people connecting with no edginess whatsoever. There is no quick editing, no razzle dazzle, no special effects, no violence, no clever camera angles, not a lot at stake. An old fashioned film. Ting writes terrific natural dialogue that is the heart of the films - especially in this one - which for all intents and purposes consists of two people talking and walking. There are no great epiphanies, no deep exploration of self or life - just two people introducing themselves and getting to know one another during a walk. Just like the real world.




The other main character is the city of Hong Kong. This is the real romance here - between the director and the city. There are two long set pieces in the film over a year apart in which the man and the woman walk through the city at night and talk about their lives - he is not thrilled with his job in finance, she is a toy designer (as was the character in Go Back to China and as was the director's father). And we get to know Hong Kong. It is a city I love and many of the locations were familiar to me - one walk in Hong Kong Island and the other walk beginning on the Ferry and then through Kowloon. The camera just stays with them though knowing Hong Kong a bit it can't be easy doing lengthy tracking shots from the front. In an interesting unexpected switch, it is the Gweilo who professes his love for Hong Kong while the American-Chinese girl is still ambivalent. At one point she is complaining about a few small things that bug her in Hong Kong and he just says to her from the Avenue of Stars in Kowloon overlooking Hong Kong Harbor - just look at that Skyline and tell me this isn't a great city.




A simple plot. At a club Josh (Bryan Greenberg), an ex-pat in the financial sector, goes out to get some air. At the same time Ruby, a Chinese American visiting from California, is on the phone with friends trying to get directions to where they are in Lan Kwai Fong. She is clueless how to get there and he offers to take her there. I would have suggested a taxi but then Ruby is played by Jamie Chung who is as cute and warm as butter on toast. So I understand his willingness to walk her. I am not sure where the walk begins - in upper Hong Kong as they walk down those steep steps featured in many films, the outside escalator (seen in Chungking Express) and get to the crowded boisterous Lan Kwai Fong, where the ex-pats and tourists congregate. During a drink it comes out that he has a girlfriend that he left behind at the other club. A quick end to the night follows. A year later they run into each other on the Ferry to Kowloon and end up spending the night walking the streets of Kowloon - Chungking Mansion and the Temple Street Night Market included.




The two of them clearly have an attraction for one another but both are involved with others. A fortune teller (Richard Ng - who was the father in Go Back to China) - sees it. We see it. They are made for one another. But we have all had dates in our life that went incredibly well - the connection felt so natural and strong - and then it went nowhere for reasons I can't even recall. The film ends on an interestingly ambiguous note that the director chose - but which I found frustrating and yet it was just right. It clearly has echoes of Before Sunrise which is a superior film but there should be room for other similar films in our world. I enjoyed this but in truth I don't know how much of that was the narrative, how much was the smile of Jamie Chung and how much was Hong Kong. But knowing that it may be quite some while before I can get back to Hong Kong, it sure was nice visiting it again.