Love

Taiwan idols make a convincing case for screen supremacy with Love, an ensemble romance from director-actor Doze Niu. Mostly Taipei-set with occasional detours to Beijing, Love features a super-photogenic cast muddling through their love lives, the details of which — if you’ve ever seen a television drama — should immediately be familiar. Basically, nothing that occurs in Love is original or inspired, with pretty people and terrific production values intended to shore up the whole shebang. Luckily, Doze Niu and his actors succeed at their patchwork film-making, making Love an enjoyable if overlong piece of star-fuelled fluff.
An impressive 12-minute tracking shot introduces us to Love’s characters. Chia (Ivy Chen) is pregnant thanks to Kai (Eddie Peng), but he’s the boyfriend of her best pal Ni (Amber Kuo). Rich businessman Mark (Mark Chao) chances by Beijing visitor Xiaoye (Vicki Zhao) in a hotel elevator, before rebuffing the advances of socialite Zoe (Shu Qi) in one of the luxury rooms. Working in the hotel is Chia’s stuttering brother Kuan (Ethan Ruan), who annoys Zoe when he snaps her photo outside the hotel, right before she’s picked up by Lu Ping (Doze Niu), her rich sugar daddy and Ni’s father. Mark later travels to Beijing where he enters into a fiery
relationship with Xiaoye.
Despite possessing the ingredients for a self-involved romance dissertation, Love eschews pretension and keeps epiphanies and self-realisation character-specific. Events are unremarkable and clichéd — lost children, teary confrontations, teased abortions — but the actors and Niu’s solid direction make the most of this familiar material. The Beijing segment feels the most complete and entertaining, thanks to Vicki Zhao’s strong performance as single mother Xiaoye, plus some sly support from Wang Jingchun as Ge Ting, the cop who helps Xiaoye and Mark navigate their romantic tension. Mark Chao is a bit outclassed by the older Zhao, but his handsome, confident screen presence makes him a worthy sparring partner.
On the Taipei side, siblings Kuan and Chia share a surprisingly affecting if not romantic relationship. Ivy Chen makes Chia sympathetic and felt despite the fact that she’s the one who stole her best friend’s guy. Ethan Ruan is super likeable as the virgin Kuan, a “best man ever” archetype whose tentative courtship of the worldly Zoe is the closest the film has to a grand movie-like romance. Shu Qi essays Zoe like an old pro, bringing instant character and credibility to her role. The story between Kai and Ni is the least felt, as it doesn’t seem to develop so much as simply get defined, and the characters only seem to change because they disappear for so much screen-time. However, both Amber Kuo and Eddie Peng are fine, with Kuo’s scenes with Ivy Chen surpassing their soap opera clichés.
Love is ultimately a product, but it’s a classy one. The film wraps up in an expected manner, i.e., everyone has a resolution and most are happy ones. At the same time, Niu doesn’t overdo his climaxes, choosing for low-key unions rather than heightened clinches that rom-coms are so prone to. Love seems to recognise its genre’s pitfalls, and occasionally subverts them with an endearing self-awareness that calls attentions to its TV drama tropes, frequently with humour. Niu also makes sure to put his talented cast front-and-centre, but not at the expense of experienced actors like Shu Qi and Vicki Zhao, who thankfully anchor the proceedings.

Ross Chen, www.lovehkfilm.com