“Lovers”, a Romance Featuring Bated Breath over Brave Actions

It is 859 B.C. A rebel group called Bidomoon is troubling the Dang Dynasty. When the leader of Bidomoon died in a battle, local government officers Leo (Andy Lau) and Jin (Kaneshiro Takeshi) receive an order to arrest the newly appointed leader of the rebel group. The duo notice that Mei, a dancer in a red light district, is the deceased leader’s daughter and capture her. Mei, though, does not open her mouth regarding the rebel group’s hideout, and Liu disguises Jin as a vagabond warrior and lets him save Mei from prison to find out where the Bidomoon rebels are hiding. Meanwhile, Jin and Mei start to develop a special attraction towards each other.

Martial arts, aesthetics, and sensualism are all mixed in the action sequences in this movie directed by Zhang Yimou. The story is exaggerated as usual in this type of movie, but still, this movie not only is creative, but also captivates its viewers completely. The fighting scene in a bamboo field with combatants jumping over trees like monkeys, and another scene in a wild flower field shot at an angle from up in the air, fighting back with enemies attacking from all over, are mind blowing, and viewers forget that the scenes are offensively bloody. For example, the camera chases after the bido (a flying sword used by Bidomoon members that flies over the sky and cuts the enemy) as it dances high in the air, makes an elegant circle, and cuts off a rival’s head before one notices.

Action in this movie has a feeling of rolling inward rather than expanding outward. Director Zhang Yimou restrains the action scenes from coming out of the frame for a sweet love story and plants lovely episodes in each action sequence by slowing down or even halting the speed. In reality, what is really exaggerated in this movie is not the people flying in the air, but the three people (Mei, Jin, and Leo) who show their love that is like a fire taken out of their insides.

It doesn’t matter that there are exaggerations. What matters is whether it is persuasive or not. The movie “Lovers” certainly captures the viewers’ eyes, but not the viewers’ souls. In the ending scene when the three express all the feelings that they have kept inside, viewers cannot help but feel a bit funny, thinking “they are too innocent.” Conversations like “You should not have come back,” (Mei) and “I should have come back for the woman in my mind,” (Jin) are childish, but what is even worse is that with that kind of tragedy (common happenings disguised by tragedy) it is hard to evoke a swirl of love and hatred set by destiny. At least in its love scenes, there should have been more effort to hide longer, to be deeper, and to be more fateful.

Andy Lau’s expressions are always deep and multi dimensional. However, the lines given to him, such as “I have waited only for you for three years,” were too direct and lack resonance. The story in the movie provides reverse turn after reverse turn, but its lack of elasticity that springs back like a rubber band makes his character look rather shallow. Although Takeshi Kaneshiro looks even sexier, and Zhang Ziyi (playing Mei) with her clearer, double-edged eyelids, looks gorgeous, they also fail to give the film a sense of reality.

Zhang Yimou has been good at making big themes big (“Hero”) and small themes small (“The Road Home”) as well as making big themes small (“Red Sorghum,” “Judou”). However, it seems that he leaves “making small themes big” as a task to be achieved in the future. Maybe because of this, the movie “Lovers” resembles a beautiful woman who is pretty enough to steal one’s soul from the front, but whose beauty is hard to remember once one’s back is turned. Still, even only momentarily, it is not easy to find such a beautiful object to capture our soul with. For viewers ages 12 or older.

Seung-Jae Lee sjda@donga.com