In Romancing in Thin Air, celebrated Hong Kong helmer Johnnie To continues his return to high-profile romance cinema made in partnership with long-time collaborator Wai Ka-fai. In the early to mid-2000s, To and Wai together turned in smart and refreshing twists on Hong Kong comedies, romances and crime flicks for maximum audience appeal. Last year’s Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (with To as director-producer, and Wai as co-writer and producer) saw a welcome return to such mainstream works, only this time made with the opportunity for the films to go big in mainland China’s cinemas too - an opportunity not present in the early 2000s. Romancing in Thin Air continues the pair’s fresh forays into the mass market and, just as the earlier hits often did, offers a significant stylistic departure from the pop film that preceded it.
Whereas Don’t Go Breaking My Heart was largely set in the hard-edged urban landscape of Hong Kong, Romancing in Thin Air takes viewers to the high-altitude vistas of the mainland’s Yunnan province. There, Hong Kong superstar Michael Lau (Louis Koo) drunkenly stumbles into a mountain resort run by another Hongkonger, Sue (Sammi Cheng). Taking a room at the lodge, he decides to hide away from the media, who would otherwise be in hot pursuit after his very public split with his actress fiancée (Gao Yuanyuan). Lau’s presence thrills female staff at the hotel and a neighbourhood doctor (Tien Niu), yet Sue remains nonchalant, instead quietly busying herself with daily duties and, not so discretely, struggling with the unsolved disappearance of her beau Tian (Li Guangjie) years earlier.
This being a romance picture, it’s safe to expect that Lau and Sue would be drawn together in the remote locale. But the way that they do so is no simple affair, with co-writer Wai leaving his fingerprints in the screenplay (delivered by the same team that wrote Don’t Go Breaking My Heart). Wai’s best works as filmmaker have featured daredevil setups that play with elaborate turns of fate and audacious what-if scenarios. Romancing in Thin Air is no exception in its narrative risk-taking, not least in offering a film-within-a-film setup for maximum emotional impact. (This narrative stunt is referenced in the Chinese-language title, which remarkably signposts Romancing in Thin Air as a continuation from the film it contains.) Familiar themes of Wai’s, like protagonists overcoming great torment and mental burden, reappear. Hongkongers are depicted learning to move on after hard times and suffering from personal demons, but there’s also nifty, self-referential fun to be had with themes like celebrity too.
That’s plenty to pack into a feature-length film, and yet To ensures plenty of breathing room for moviegoers in presenting it all on-screen. The exotic widescreen vistas of the principal location, known as Shangri-La, are easy on the eye and a spectacular diversion from the usual Hong Kong cinema sights. Images like wildlife staring into Lau’s room hint at greater forces in the local landscape, and a mid-film detour to loud, high-pressure Hong Kong offers a counterpoint to scenes of the mountainous idyll. Enhancing the picture is casting, notably in teaming up Cheng and Koo, last seen sharing top billing in To and Wai’s 2003 Chinese New Year film Love for all Seasons. Cheng, who has been largely absent from screens since 2005, makes a strong return to leading-lady status under To’s direction, capably taking on moods varying from quiet sorrow to fangirl swooning. Koo is just as likeable, his character drawing on the actor’s own celebrity status and having fun with his macho image, product endorsing and more, yet - like Cheng - also putting in the acting chops needed for the romance material promised right from the movie’s title.
Tim Youngs