I've recently watched Perhaps Love again, and the film was even more beautiful the second time around. I've come to find that there are very very few films that successfully capture the struggle of love on-screen, so I was very (and pleasantly) surprised that an Asian film managed it so well. The chemistry between the actors felt real and I loved the soundtrack! Probably the weak points were the choreography and the effects (especially the ending sequence).
Btw, the director, Peter Chan, has stressed in interviews that Perhaps Love is NOT a musical, but a love story, so viewers shouldn't be going in and expecting a fare like Moulin Rouge.
I liked the way reality and illusions, past and present, were hard to separate in the movie (eg no different usage of colors), because it reflected the inner struggle of the characters; Sun Na, who refuses to believe that her past affects her present; Nie Wen, who thinks that illusions can solve reality's problems; Jian Dong, who cannot separate the past from the present.
The saddest part was when Sun Na, after receiving her memoir from Monty, recalled the film that Nie Wen had always wanted to make -- "a simple love story" -- and she said "If that film was ever made, I've always wanted to be in that film...", which reflected her inner yearning for a simple love story of her own, but it never came true. But why did she disagree so strongly with the location of that film that Nie Wen said it would be filmed at? (Qingdao? and Qinghai?, sorry can't remember the exact names) Perhaps it's because even though Nie Wen and Sun Na longed for the same thing in a whole, they also longed for different things that they could not agree upon.
There are so many things to discuss about the movie, but I think most of it is subjective; if you know how much love can confuse, hurt, give hope and stumble, you'd probably like Perhaps Love too. Words won't do it justice! All in all, Peter Chan did a great job in capturing the emotions of the characters. Worth a second and third watch!
Btw, the director, Peter Chan, has stressed in interviews that Perhaps Love is NOT a musical, but a love story, so viewers shouldn't be going in and expecting a fare like Moulin Rouge.
I liked the way reality and illusions, past and present, were hard to separate in the movie (eg no different usage of colors), because it reflected the inner struggle of the characters; Sun Na, who refuses to believe that her past affects her present; Nie Wen, who thinks that illusions can solve reality's problems; Jian Dong, who cannot separate the past from the present.
The saddest part was when Sun Na, after receiving her memoir from Monty, recalled the film that Nie Wen had always wanted to make -- "a simple love story" -- and she said "If that film was ever made, I've always wanted to be in that film...", which reflected her inner yearning for a simple love story of her own, but it never came true. But why did she disagree so strongly with the location of that film that Nie Wen said it would be filmed at? (Qingdao? and Qinghai?, sorry can't remember the exact names) Perhaps it's because even though Nie Wen and Sun Na longed for the same thing in a whole, they also longed for different things that they could not agree upon.
There are so many things to discuss about the movie, but I think most of it is subjective; if you know how much love can confuse, hurt, give hope and stumble, you'd probably like Perhaps Love too. Words won't do it justice! All in all, Peter Chan did a great job in capturing the emotions of the characters. Worth a second and third watch!