Yesterday You Yesterday Me
Director: Jacob Cheung
Year: 1997
Rating: 6.0
This peculiar title
makes little sense to me, but it certainly is not as strange as the literal
Chinese title “Remember ... Banana Ripe Time III Falling For You”.
Just wanted to get that title in this review somewhere!
I can’t say I am particularly enthusiastic
about this film. It is harmless enough yuppie fluff - but it is enclosed
in a narrative form that attempts to give it more weight than it really has.
It is a typical coming of age comedy/drama in which the protagonist only
wants to chase after girls, but eventually learns some lessons about life
and about himself.
We have seen it all before and this UFO
film felt very derivative of the American TV show - The Wonder Years. It
has the same whimsical mood and it is structured in the same way – in which
an older inner voice is always present to give a different perspective to
what is actually being said or done. Lau Ching-Wan narrates the older voice.
Most of the actors are completely unknown
to me, but were probably the best thing about this film – very natural, very
charming and very attractive. The script though had nothing new to say.
John Tang goes off to University where studies
are initially the last thing on his mind. His girlfriend has gone to Canada
to study and so the decks are all clear. He finds University to be a very
easy place to meet girls and he is soon doing quite well. He unfortunately
has to share his dorm quarters with a roommate who spends most of his time
pleasuring himself (on the top bunk bed!), but eventually moves on to a blow
up doll. Ok whatever.
One day an older journalist student interviews John on the street and he
is fascinated by her worldly sophisticated ways. Yeung Ching is quite a beauty
and I was a bit taken with her as well. The film then focuses on their relationship
over the next few years as he attempts to move it from friendship to something
more meaningful. The film follows this progression or the lack of it
in a very casual manner and there is no real focus to the story. It just
glides from one scene to another and the years skip by. As interesting as
Yeung appears to be, the film never really paints a picture of her beyond
this mysterious care free spirit.
I found myself getting increasingly impatient as the film went on and nothing
really ever happens. That’s probably what the director was intending this
to be – a slice of life film with few if any dramatics beyond what all of
us come across in our lives - but I was completely uninterested in what happens
to these characters.
Now what I think I may be missing in terms of enjoying this film is that
it is apparently the third film in a series – the other two being Yesteryou,
Yesterme, Yesterday (1993) and Over the Rainbow Under the Skirt (1994) both
with Tang in them. Perhaps having followed John growing up in these earlier
films, it would have made this feel a bit more meaningful.
Eric Tsang gives his usual (as of late) terrific
supporting performance as John’s father.