Watching See You Tomorrow (擺渡人) is like partaking in one of the extreme alcohol challenges featured in the film. You’re having the time of your life even though nothing is really making sense anymore, and the party rages on at full throttle as shot after shot comes in. It only gets better as your consciousness starts to fade … and you wake up with a horrible hangover wondering what the hell happened.
There’s little substance to this film, which runs on pure adrenaline and dopamine in a purposely over-the-top world where drinking 50 shots of Siberian vodka within a minute is just one event over a wild night. The humor is mostly slapstick or culture-specific, with nods to many past films and the latest pop phenomena and sayings in the Chinese-speaking world — typical of your local Lunar New Year blockbuster that is not meant to garner much attention outside of Asia. Don’t be surprised that it’s produced by Wong Kar-wai (王家衛) — the arthouse legend has done this before with the screwball comedy The Eagle Shooting Heroes (東成西就), which premiered during the holidays in 1993.
First-time director Zhang Jiajia (張嘉佳), who adapted the script from his own short story, pronounced it a “Wong Kar-wai film story told in a Stephen Chow (周星馳) manner.” But it leans too much toward Chow’s nonsensical comedic style. We can see his efforts to emulate Wong from the visual stylings to the themes of yearning and unrequited love, but the dialogue is trite, the ideas are shallow and the emotional pull does not even come close to a “genuine” Wong flick.
Photos courtesy of atmovies.com
Chow’s productions are usually fun to watch, and so is See You Tomorrow, with its crazy characters and their shenanigans along with the ultra-glitzy and splashy visuals. But in the end, it’s just a temporary distraction to the glaring plot holes, cheap story gimmicks and lack of depth due to cramming too much into one film. We know that things aren’t supposed to make sense in these types of films, but at least we should leave feeling that there was some sort of resolution — even if it is everyone lives happily ever after.
Not here, as we don’t really know what any of the main characters gained out of the events. The whole premise is based on Tony Leung’s (梁朝偉) role as a “ferryman,” who is hired to guide those who are drowning emotionally to the “shore.” The problem is the film is so bogged down by the characters’ wacky hijinks that we don’t actually see him seriously at work until halfway through the film.
And even then, the way people are “saved” in the film is trivial and childish — for example, Leung “helps” a fat lady whose groom ran away on wedding day get over her heartbreak by starving her for 48 hours and diverting her attention to food. It appears that in this world, people can just turn their lives over by one simple event. And in the end, there is no epiphany for Leung or his protege Xiaoyu (楊穎, Angelababy). Nor for any of the other “main” characters, of which only Guanchun (Kaneshiro Takeshi, 金城武) gets significant screen attention with an even more ridiculous backstory.
On that note, Kaneshiro should be applauded as he plays probably the most extreme character in the movie with gusto. Leung is a bit disappointing, but part of it may have to do with his incessant switching between Cantonese and Mandarin (and sometimes English), which is the most puzzling part of the film. It’s not just Leung — all Hong Kong-based actors do this constantly and often several times within one sentence. There is one scene where a character speaks exclusively in Cantonese while his sister only speaks Mandarin, and it’s as if the director thinks that speakers of the two languages can automatically understand each other.
Perhaps it is to appeal to audiences across Taiwan, Hong Kong and China as the soundtrack also includes several Hoklo (also known as Taiwanese) classics. But the story is set in Shanghai, everyone is obviously fluent in Mandarin and this effort in “inclusion” only makes things even more jarring than they already are.
April 28 to May 4 During the Japanese colonial era, a city’s “first” high school typically served Japanese students, while Taiwanese attended the “second” high school. Only in Taichung was this reversed. That’s because when Taichung First High School opened its doors on May 1, 1915 to serve Taiwanese students who were previously barred from secondary education, it was the only high school in town. Former principal Hideo Azukisawa threatened to quit when the government in 1922 attempted to transfer the “first” designation to a new local high school for Japanese students, leading to this unusual situation. Prior to the Taichung First
Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫) hatched a bold plan to charge forward and seize the initiative when he held a protest in front of the Taipei City Prosecutors’ Office. Though risky, because illegal, its success would help tackle at least six problems facing both himself and the KMT. What he did not see coming was Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (將萬安) tripping him up out of the gate. In spite of Chu being the most consequential and successful KMT chairman since the early 2010s — arguably saving the party from financial ruin and restoring its electoral viability —
The Ministry of Education last month proposed a nationwide ban on mobile devices in schools, aiming to curb concerns over student phone addiction. Under the revised regulation, which will take effect in August, teachers and schools will be required to collect mobile devices — including phones, laptops and wearables devices — for safekeeping during school hours, unless they are being used for educational purposes. For Chang Fong-ching (張鳳琴), the ban will have a positive impact. “It’s a good move,” says the professor in the department of
Article 2 of the Additional Articles of the Constitution of the Republic of China (中華民國憲法增修條文) stipulates that upon a vote of no confidence in the premier, the president can dissolve the legislature within 10 days. If the legislature is dissolved, a new legislative election must be held within 60 days, and the legislators’ terms will then be reckoned from that election. Two weeks ago Taipei Mayor Chiang Wan-an (蔣萬安) of the Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) proposed that the legislature hold a vote of no confidence in the premier and dare the president to dissolve the legislature. The legislature is currently controlled
RSS