Rather than calling "Perhaps love" a musical, it is better to call it a love story with musical elements. As far as that goes, the song and dance sequences are satisfying, although not elating.
Like many that came before it (including Truffaut's "Day for night"), "Perhaps Love" is structured as a movie about making a movie. It manipulates the situation to its fullest by having the story in the movie that is being made replicate almost exactly the story of the people making it the director, male and female leads, in an all-too-familiar perpetual triangle. Crisp cutting traversing the three dimensions the making of the movie (the present), flashbacks (the past) and the story within the movie being made (the allegory) creates a fascinating kaleidoscope of lavish beauty from which emotions flare.
Kaneshiro Takeshi and Zhou Xun, playing two top stars that shared a past that one tries to forget with icy resolution while the other clings on to with fiery desperation, work together splendidly to bring life to an often-told tale. Jacky Cheung cuts quite a powerful "Phantom" figure playing the director who brought the actress to fame and fortune. Ji Jin-hee is comfortable in a role of the muse in Tales of Hoffman, but appearing in many guises.
The use of the trapeze in the grand finale is a clever move, bringing to mind quite a few classic movies with the circus as background. The mellowed ending lifts this movie one notch above conventional romance melodramas, sending the audience away with reflections on the protagonists' as well as their own fleeting passage through life.
Like many that came before it (including Truffaut's "Day for night"), "Perhaps Love" is structured as a movie about making a movie. It manipulates the situation to its fullest by having the story in the movie that is being made replicate almost exactly the story of the people making it the director, male and female leads, in an all-too-familiar perpetual triangle. Crisp cutting traversing the three dimensions the making of the movie (the present), flashbacks (the past) and the story within the movie being made (the allegory) creates a fascinating kaleidoscope of lavish beauty from which emotions flare.
Kaneshiro Takeshi and Zhou Xun, playing two top stars that shared a past that one tries to forget with icy resolution while the other clings on to with fiery desperation, work together splendidly to bring life to an often-told tale. Jacky Cheung cuts quite a powerful "Phantom" figure playing the director who brought the actress to fame and fortune. Ji Jin-hee is comfortable in a role of the muse in Tales of Hoffman, but appearing in many guises.
The use of the trapeze in the grand finale is a clever move, bringing to mind quite a few classic movies with the circus as background. The mellowed ending lifts this movie one notch above conventional romance melodramas, sending the audience away with reflections on the protagonists' as well as their own fleeting passage through life.