If You are the One
2
Director: Feng Xiaogang
Year: 2010
Rating: 6.0
This sequel to the enormously popular first film
continues to explore the off-beat relationship of Qin Fen (Ge You) and Xiaoxiao
(Shu Qi). I would not call it a romance exactly - too amorphous for
that. This one actually opened in America at the same time it did in China.
Not sure how well it did in America, but it was a hit in China. The first
film contained a lot of puckish humor as Fen became wealthy and decided in
middle age that it was time to get married. He advertises for a wife and
his interviews of various women are quite amusing and disastrous - till he
meets Xiaoxiao. Like most of the
male species - with admittedly a few exceptions - he is awestruck with her
beauty - but they don't hit it off at all. Just no chemistry plus she is
in love with a married man and is using this to get over him. But they keep
running into each other and eventually become confidants and good friends
- and it ends like that hinting at more to come. This film is a different
animal - much less of an attempt for humor and after the initial set-up it
becomes fairly serious and morose as it deals with death (not of out twosome).
Not at all what I was really in the mood for.
It begins with Fen proposing to her on the
Great Wall. With no one around. It should be mentioned that director Feng
Xiaogang (A World Without Thieves, Banquet, Assembly) paints an astonishingly
glossy and upscale portrait of China. Everything looks stunning. Everyone
looks wealthy. All the women are beautiful. The restaurants and hotels they
attend are fabulous. Watch the documentary Ascension for a more truthful
look. There is an elite group at the top, but that is a fraction of the population.
But only the wealthy need apply for this film. No poor people in sight.
The New China they try to project. Not exactly propaganda but close. So just
take that as a warning - the gloss is beautiful and Shu Qi is radiant.
She sort of accepts but not right away.
First, they attend a fancy ceremony with invited guests in their best clothes
and cake for their two best friends Xiangshan (Sun Honglei) and Mango (Yao
Chen) to get . . . divorced. Do you promise to never love this man
again no matter what. Yes. Now hug and be friends. After this Fen and Xiaoxiao
decide it might make sense to have a test run before they get married. He
rents the most stunning fabulous house in the southern resort island of Hainan
Island - where they are high up in the hills surrounded by forests and a
view of the ocean and it has to be accessed only by walking across a long
wooden planked bridge. I could live happily up there forever as long as I
had my movies, internet, books and a nearby 7-11. And Shu Qi.
But these two idiots decide to really test
it and they create an unreality of what their marriage will be like after
years. He is much older than she is and so pretends to be paralyzed and she
has to wait on him for everything. She pretends to have lost interest in
sex to see if he will still love her. Fun and games. No, not really and it
begins to wear on them and on the audience as well. Will you two just hop
into bed and have sex. The future will take care of itself. Things do not
go well. She returns to her job as an airline hostess (always bringing back
thoughts of Chungking Express) and he moves on. And then it gets even more
depressing. I just noticed that there is an If You Are the One 3! It
stars both Shu Qi and Ge You. Fourteen years after this one. Does it take
place in a Senior Citizen home? Has their test come to be reality? Ge You
is near to 70 and Shu Qi is approaching fifty which is hard to even think
about. Hope I can find it.
