Already Tomorrow in
Hong Kong
Director: Emily Ting
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.
