"Comrades, Almost a Love Story" is one of my all-time favorite movies, of any genre. It is hard to express just how wonderful and moving this romance is. Enough to touch even the most jaded and cynical of hearts.
"Comrades" swept award after award upon its Hong Kong release. For example, see the list for the Hong Kong Film Awards: Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director (Peter Chan), Best Actress (Maggie Cheung), Best Supporting Actor (Eric Tsang). Plus Best Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume & Make-up Design, and Score.
The story covers a 10-year span. In 1986, Li Jun (played by Leon Lai) arrives in Hong Kong right off the proverbial turnip truck. He's a Mainlander from some rural community up north. He has come to Hong Kong to make some money in order to eventually bring his fiancée down and get married. This task is made difficult because he is rather naive and more importantly, doesn't speak a word of Cantonese. His best hope is to work menial jobs until he can learn the language and better his circumstances.
One day he goes into a McDonald's to pantomime his way into ordering a hamburger. The cashier, Li Qiao (Maggie Cheung), is arrogantly frustrated with his inability to speak Cantonese and tells him he'd better get with the program because in the hustling capitalism of Hong Kong, people like him don't stand much of a chance. He is drawn to her because she can speak to him in Mandarin and she is very cute. "Are you from the Mainland, too?" he asks. "Of course not!" she says. (It's hard to move up in HK with that stigma attached.) Anyway, they end up spending time together. She steers him toward an English language class. Out of friendship? Well, not really, because she gets a cut ($$) for every Mainlander she delivers. She also has him running errands and such for her.
They grow closer. At one point she confesses that she too is from the Mainland (but from nearby Guangzhou Province, not from up north hicksville). He replies "I've pretty much known that all along." "They why did you let me take advantage of you?" "I needed a friend and you're the only one I have." They become lovers of convenience and proximity. He still loves his fiancée and sends her letters, but she is distant and Li Qiao is near.
So far, this is the first half hour of the film. How it plays out from here is the magic of this movie. The backdrop of the next 10 years is the ever-changing Hong Kong as it prepares for the 1997 handover. Fortunes made, fortunes lost. Li Qiao and Li Jun go their separate ways, but find themselves back in each other's lives from time to time. She meets someone else and he ends up marrying his fiancée. But still their feelings for each other can never be suppressed entirely.
I hope I have not made this seem like a typical boy-meets-girl romance. It is so much more than that, and yet without all the trappings you might expect from a big-budget Hollywood film. There are no wisecracking sidekicks, no cute kids making fools out of the adults, no slapsticky miscommunications. Just these two wonderfully engaging people and the lives they lead and the difficult choices they make.
I know I am a romantic softie. A number of movies cause my eyes to get all misty. I've seen "Comrades" at least 6 times and I still get leaky. I know what happens, I know how it ends – there are no plot surprises. Yet every time I watch it I can't help but be absorbed by the acting, the pacing, and the emotional impact of the story of these two people.
"Comrades" swept award after award upon its Hong Kong release. For example, see the list for the Hong Kong Film Awards: Best Picture, Best Screenplay, Best Director (Peter Chan), Best Actress (Maggie Cheung), Best Supporting Actor (Eric Tsang). Plus Best Art Direction, Cinematography, Costume & Make-up Design, and Score.
The story covers a 10-year span. In 1986, Li Jun (played by Leon Lai) arrives in Hong Kong right off the proverbial turnip truck. He's a Mainlander from some rural community up north. He has come to Hong Kong to make some money in order to eventually bring his fiancée down and get married. This task is made difficult because he is rather naive and more importantly, doesn't speak a word of Cantonese. His best hope is to work menial jobs until he can learn the language and better his circumstances.
One day he goes into a McDonald's to pantomime his way into ordering a hamburger. The cashier, Li Qiao (Maggie Cheung), is arrogantly frustrated with his inability to speak Cantonese and tells him he'd better get with the program because in the hustling capitalism of Hong Kong, people like him don't stand much of a chance. He is drawn to her because she can speak to him in Mandarin and she is very cute. "Are you from the Mainland, too?" he asks. "Of course not!" she says. (It's hard to move up in HK with that stigma attached.) Anyway, they end up spending time together. She steers him toward an English language class. Out of friendship? Well, not really, because she gets a cut ($$) for every Mainlander she delivers. She also has him running errands and such for her.
They grow closer. At one point she confesses that she too is from the Mainland (but from nearby Guangzhou Province, not from up north hicksville). He replies "I've pretty much known that all along." "They why did you let me take advantage of you?" "I needed a friend and you're the only one I have." They become lovers of convenience and proximity. He still loves his fiancée and sends her letters, but she is distant and Li Qiao is near.
So far, this is the first half hour of the film. How it plays out from here is the magic of this movie. The backdrop of the next 10 years is the ever-changing Hong Kong as it prepares for the 1997 handover. Fortunes made, fortunes lost. Li Qiao and Li Jun go their separate ways, but find themselves back in each other's lives from time to time. She meets someone else and he ends up marrying his fiancée. But still their feelings for each other can never be suppressed entirely.
I hope I have not made this seem like a typical boy-meets-girl romance. It is so much more than that, and yet without all the trappings you might expect from a big-budget Hollywood film. There are no wisecracking sidekicks, no cute kids making fools out of the adults, no slapsticky miscommunications. Just these two wonderfully engaging people and the lives they lead and the difficult choices they make.
I know I am a romantic softie. A number of movies cause my eyes to get all misty. I've seen "Comrades" at least 6 times and I still get leaky. I know what happens, I know how it ends – there are no plot surprises. Yet every time I watch it I can't help but be absorbed by the acting, the pacing, and the emotional impact of the story of these two people.