Comrades, Almost a Love Story (甜蜜蜜 Tianmimi)

Director: Peter Chan Ho-Sun

Screenplay: Ivy Ho

Producer: Raymond Chow, Eric Tsang

Cinematographer: Jingle Ma

Art Director: Yee Chung-man

Cast: Maggie Cheung, Leon Lai Ming

Studio: Golden Harvest / United Filmmakers Organization, 1996

Description: color; sound; 116 minutes. Winner of the Best Picture at the 16th Hong Kong Film Awards (nine awards), the 3rd Annual Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards (three awards), and Seattle International Film Festival.

Synopsis:

Destiny brings two people together, but they aren't sure if they're meant to be friends or lovers in this romantic comedy-drama. In 1986, Xiaojun (Leon Lai) arrives in Hong Kong from mainland China, full of dreams about life in the big city and determined to make enough money to send for his fiancée and marry her. Xiaojun knows no one in Hong Kong except his aunt, but with her help, he finds a room in a cheap hotel and picks up a job peddling a delivery bicycle for a butcher. On his day off, Xiaojun decides to get lunch at a McDonalds, which he's heard about but never seen. Xiaojun is waited on by Chiao (Maggie Cheung), a pretty girl who has also moved to Hong Kong from the mainland to seek her fortune. Chiao is taken with Xiaojun, but thinks he's too much the country bumpkin, especially since he can't speak Cantonese or English. Chiao arranges for Xiaojun to get lessons in English and teaches him about life in Hong Kong and how to get rich quick; she also ropes him into helping with her latest business scheme, using his delivery bike to sell flowers. Xiaojun and Chiao become best friends - indeed, each is the only real friend the other has in Hong Kong - and one night, on New Year's Eve, the two find themselves alone together and end up making love. The next morning, both Xiaojun and Chiao are certain they've made a mistake; Xiaojun goes on to marry his sweetheart from home, while Chiao opens a flower shop and becomes involved with a kind man who has ties to organized crime. As the years pass, however, Xiaojun becomes convinced that his mistake wasn't sleeping with Chiao, but letting her go, and eventually he decides he must find her and win her heart. Comrades: Almost a Love Story was a runaway success in Hong Kong, where the film won nine trophies at the 1997 Hong Kong Film Awards, including Best Picture, Best Director, Best Screenplay, and Best Actress. (Mark Deming All Movie Guide)

About the director:

Peter Chan Ho-Sun/Chen Kexin (?-): Hong Kong-based producer, director, and writer. He produced popular Asian films such as Heroes Shed No Tears (1986), One Fine Spring Day (KOREA 2001), The Eye (2002), Golden Chicken (2002), Golden Chicken 2 (2003), Dumplings: Three...Extremes (2004), and his diretorial works include He's a Woman, She's a Man (1994), Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996), Three (HK/KOREA/THAILAND 2002). His English-language debut, The Love Letter, was produced by Dreamworks and premiered in May of 1999.

About the stars:

Maggie Cheung/Zhang Manyu (1964-):

One of Hong Kong's most respected and best-liked actresses, Maggie Cheung has done it all. Cheung's versatility as an action star, talented comedienne, and dramatic actress has allowed her to transcend the Hong Kong film industry to become a vibrant figure in international cinema.

Born in Hong Kong on September 20, 1964, Cheung moved to England with her family at the age of eight. She remained in England until she finished her secondary school education. Upon returning to Hong Kong, she began a modeling career, which led to TV commercials and the title of first runner-up for Miss Hong Kong 1983. The following year, she broke into film, doing a number of vapid comedies with titles like Prince Charming, The Frog Prince, Happy Ghost 3, Happy Fat New Year, and Love Hungry Suicide Squad. She got her big break in 1985, when she was cast opposite legendary action star Jackie Chan in Police Story. The film's success gave her greater exposure, but it also resulted in her being typed in comic or damsel-in-distress roles.

Cheung got her next big break, and her chance to prove herself as a dramatic actress, when Wong Kar-Wai cast her in his 1988 crime drama As Tears Go By. Although she continued to do comedies and put-upon-woman roles (starring in the Police Story sequels and appearing in the Chow Yun-Fat action flick A Better Tomorrow 3), she also sought out more challenging work. She earned strong notices for her work in such films as the family conflict drama Song of the Exile (1990) and Wong Kar-Wai's 1991 period drama Days of Being Wild. In 1992, Cheung won some of the greatest acclaim of her career for her work in The Actress [webmaster notes: i.e Central Stage/Ruan Lingyu, Stanley Kwan's docudrama about a silent film icon. That same year, Cheung further proved her versatility with starring roles in three more action films, Twin Dragons with Jackie Chan; the third installment of the Police Story trilogy; and The Heroic Trio, in which she and fellow action stars Michelle Yeoh and Anita Mui were cast as comic book superwomen.

Following another collaboration with Wong on Ashes of Time, a 1994 period drama, Cheung broke through to an international audience in Irma Vep (1996). The popular film, directed by Olivier Assayas (whom Cheung married in 1998), featured Cheung as herself, an actress caught up in the chaos surrounding a filmmaker's attempts to make a tribute to Louis Feuillade's classic serial Les Vampires. Spending much of the film clad in an extremely flattering cat suit, Cheung endeared herself to international critics and audiences alike. The following year, she made her first English-language film, starring alongside Jeremy Irons and Gong Li in Wayne Wang's Chinese Box. Cast as a mysterious young woman named Jean, Cheung held her own against the more internationally well-established Irons and Gong. That same year, she won further acclaim for her work in the romantic comedy Comrades, Almost a Love Story, in which she played one of a pair of lovers kept apart for ten years by fate and circumstance. (Rebecca Flint, All Movie Guide.)

Questions to ponder: These are a few questions suggested for you to think about while reading the assigned articles and watching the film. Please jot down ideas and notes on details or scenes you think are relevant for class discussion. 1. The film spans almost ten years from 1986 to 1995, from mainland China to Hong Kong, and then to New York. How are immigrant experiences represented and how are their cultural identities constructed in this film? How does "transnational imaginary" and "transregional imagination" (Yingjin Zhang) play out in the film? 2. How does the film weave its romantic theme into the social context of Hong Kong in its relation to the mainland and the West? What kind of Hong Kong characters do you perceive from the film? 3. The film's Chinese title "Tianmimi", literally means "sweet as honey," is taken from the eponymous popular song sung by Chinese pop diva Teresa Teng back in the 1970s and it appears in the film several times. What's the role of the popular memories in the film?

Relevant readings:

Web Sources:

Reviews at LoveHKfilm.com.