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 West
Lake Moment" is the latest film from Hong Kong director Yim Ho, best
known for complex emotional dramas such as "The Kitchen" and
"Homecoming". Here, the director turns his hand to contemporary
romance, with an attempt to explore modern relationships in a manner
that is whimsical, yet shot through with a bitter sense of realism.
Unfortunately, the only bitterness is likely to
be on the part of the viewer, as "A West Lake Moment" is a
monumental failure, a grating and annoying false dose of saccharine
without any genuine feeling or worthwhile comments on the nature of
intimacy. Sunk by a terrible script, sickening self-indulgence, and
unbelievable characters that exist solely for the purpose of
spouting mock-poetic bile, "A West Lake Moment" truly is a film
without any redeeming qualities, and one which counts as a romantic
comedy only in that it represents a previously talented director
blindly in love with his own work. Sadly, the results are laughable.
The film follows the burgeoning romance between
Qin (Chen Kun, who previously showed great promise in "The Little
Chinese Seamstress") and Yu (Zhou Xun, who was also in "Seamstress",
as well as "Suzhou
River"). The two meet by chance when poor, lonely Qin decides to
spend his birthday in Yu's coffee shop, and somehow manages to draw
Yu's interest despite some truly maudlin singing. Although the flame
of romance is immediately and conveniently lit, there are several
obstacles in the path of true love, most importantly the fact that
Yu is engaged to a Western man, and Qin himself already has a
girlfriend. Despite the fact that neither character seems
particularly motivated or desperate for romance to bloom between
them, a relationship slowly builds, leading inexorably towards what
are obviously signposted as difficult choices about life, love, and
so on and so forth.
As should be obvious by now, the plot of "A
West Lake Moment" basically consists of cliché following cliché,
strung together with a series of unlikely coincidences which are
justified through several cringe worthy references to fate and
destiny. Ho, who also co-scripted, seems to be under the illusion
that the film is some kind of fairy tale, which magically allows him
to subdue the viewer with cheap emotion, and even less subtly, with
a rancid landslide of forced cuteness, a ploy which becomes apparent
immediately from the opening scene.
This basically translates into a senseless
narrative, in which all the character relationships feel forced, and
which, worst of all, relies on distastefully low tugs at the
heartstrings, such as the entirely pointless death of a minor,
supposedly sympathetic character, to give the main protagonists a
chance to emote. This type of desperate and unsuccessful
manipulation pervades the entire film, and at times threatens to
throw proceedings into the realm of the surreal, not least through
the fact that Ho decides to curse half the cast with a comically
unrealistic stutter. Unfortunately, even this falls flat, for the
simple fact that both Qin and Yu are preposterous, thinly written
stereotypical caricatures of what Ho clearly believes to be
representative of 'youth culture'.
Things are not helped by the poor acting of Kun
and Xun, though to be fair neither have much to work with,
especially Kun, who is reduced to playing a character whose defining
moment comes early on in the film when he is seen crying over his
own vomit-inspiring writing (laughably narrated to the dumbstruck
viewer), then recovering with an energetic session of air drumming.
Xun fares little better, playing a character saddled with a wacky
invisible friend with whom she is forced to have a series of
conversations which are quite obviously designed to reveal her inner
thoughts and to push along the film's slow narrative.
Ho's
direction only serves to make matters worse, as he manages to give
"A West Lake Moment" the look and feel of a coffee advertisement,
packed with shots of characters staring longingly at each other over
steaming cups as they chatter away about absolutely nothing. On top
of this, he chooses to commit cinematic suicide by inserting a
number of incredibly self-conscious tricks, such as having cartoon
letters appear on the screen, and occasionally employing ill-judged
fast editing effects. These are alternated with long, languorous
shots of the titular lake, unfortunately accompanied by
pseudo-lyrical drivel about clouds. There is no sense of consistency
in the style or feel, which only serves further to highlight the
fact that Ho has done little more than clumsily, and rather
inexplicably, pulled together the worst elements of the romantic
comedy genre into an unpalatable mishmash.
Is there anything good to say about "A West
Lake Moment"? Sadly, aside from one snide joke about Zhang Ziyi's
lack of popularity in her native land, the answer is a resounding
No. The film is quite simply horrible, being shoddily made, and
depressingly reliant on cheap emotions in a way that is sure to
alienate even the most heartsick of genre fans, and which is sure to
leave the average viewer searching desperately for something to wash
away the bad taste.
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