Love in the Time of Twilight
Director: Tsui Hark
Year: 1995
Rating: 8.0
This is the sort
of film that only HK can make. This Tsui Hark film is a wonderfully warm
blend of fantasy, romance and comedy. I loved this magical film from the
first moment till the very last. The viewer immediately enters into another
world. It is in the early part of the twentieth century and a travelling
fair has come to a small town. The streets are full of wonder - fortunetellers,
matchmakers, performers and more. Charlie Yeung is part of a performing troupe
along with her father and friends.
As she wanders the streets, she keeps bumping
into Nicky Wu. They are both looking for love, but it quickly turns out that
they are like oil and water. Instead Nicky catches the eye of a beguiling
beauty and by evening’s end they are in bed together. What Nicky doesn’t
know is that he is being set up to assist unknowingly in a bank robbery and
then be murdered. Two weeks later the fair comes back to town and his ghost
appears to ask Charlie to help him go back in time and stop the murder from
happening. From this point on the film becomes enchanted; a lovely and suspenseful
fairy tale. Charlie goes back into time, but it seems that fate is unchangeable.
There is also a lot of comedy here and
one scene though difficult to explain is one of the funniest vaudevillian
styled routines that I have ever seen. Through strange circumstances, Charlie
and Nicky are merged together – back to back- and how they avoid being discovered
is so clever and hilarious. This is yet another wonderful offering from Tsui
Hark – full of heart and romance and humor. Charlie Yeung gives a sweet endearing
performance as she creates almost two characters – what she was before she
went back in time and who she becomes afterwards.
