Fan yi cho

Lavender is a romantic fantasy film directed by Riley Yip and starring Kelly Chen, Takeshi Kaneshiro, and Eason Chan. The movie weaves a tender and whimsical story about love, loss, and healing through magical realism.

The story centers around Athena (Kelly Chen), a perfume maker who lives alone in her cozy Hong Kong apartment. Still mourning the death of her boyfriend Andrew (Eason Chan), Athena leads a quiet and sorrowful life, struggling to move on. Her world changes dramatically when an angel (Takeshi Kaneshiro) literally falls from the sky and crashes onto her balcony. Injured and wingless, the angel needs to gather enough happiness to return to heaven.

Despite her initial shock, Athena agrees to let the angel stay with her. As they begin to live together, his innocent curiosity and childlike behavior bring warmth and laughter back into her life. The angel's mission is to collect happiness in the form of heartbeats, and in doing so, he helps Athena reconnect with her emotions and rediscover joy.

As their bond deepens, Athena starts to heal from her grief, but the presence of the angel also reminds her of her lost love. Meanwhile, her neighbor Chow Chow (Eason Chan in a dual role), who harbors feelings for her, adds emotional complexity to the story.

The film beautifully blends elements of fantasy with real human emotions, using soft visuals and a gentle tone to explore themes of loss, acceptance, and the transformative power of love. The lavender scent, symbolic of healing and memory, runs throughout the narrative, adding poetic resonance.

Lavender is a bittersweet tale that celebrates the magic of unexpected connections and the possibility of moving on, even after profound heartache. Its dreamy atmosphere and heartfelt performances make it a memorable romantic fantasy.

Review written by artist jayakumar jrain.

Hong Kong heartthrob Takeshi Kanehiro plays an angel with a broken wing in this bizarre romance directed by Ip Kam-Hung. He lands in the garden of Athena, a heartbroken young woman who has given up on love after the death of her previous lover. She works as an aromatherapy instructor by day and cries into her exclusive diet of ramen noodle soup by night, sending helium balloons into the sky in hopes that they reach her deceased lover in heaven.

Her unwelcoming persona turns off 'Angel' so he spends most of his time hanging out with her neighbor, Chow Chow, a flamboyant homosexual played entertainingly by Eason Chan. Although Angel assures Chow Chow that in heaven all love is treated equally, the pathetic manner in which the Chow Chow character is portrayed hardly makes 'Lavender' a film that deserves praise for positive gay representation.

Director Ip treats the audience to endless shots of Kanehiro's pretty face and body, and I must admit that he does a good job at seeming really angelic. But the main plot involves Angel's attempts at helping Athena to break out of her love funk. The problem is that much of this part was very corny and cliched, and Kelly Chan's constant crying and annoying tantrums made sympathizing with her character a bit difficult. I'm not sure it was her fault, because the script didn't leave her much to work with.

The most redeeming performances came from Eason Chan as Chow Chow and a small role for Cheng Pei-Pei (who played the evil Jade Fox in 'Crouching Tiger') as an aging woman trying desperately to hold on to her youth.

The actual main plot, involving the relationship between Angel and Athena just got to be a bit too sentimental and cliched in parts, and even downright corny in others. For example, Angel develops some strange fascination with shoes (I still don't know why) and when Athena throws his favorite pair of shoes away Angel embarks on a mission to find those shoes at any cost, in the middle of a monsoon. I think this illogical part of the plot was simply thrown in to allow for a cliched reuniting in the rain.

But by far the strangest moment in the film is when Athena comes face to face with a big black bull standing in an open field next to a tree full of balloons. Once again her tears (of joy?) start flowing as she realizes that the bull is the reincarnation of her dead lover (no, I'm not kidding). During this very touching moment layered in sentimental music, I honestly could not control myself from bursting out into out-loud laughter. The problem is that it wasn't supposed to be funny. (5 out of 10)

Very sweet, full of repressed longing, and nicely surreal.

Though not an action film, this film shares a couple qualities with "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon." The film has a feeling of myth to it, and the film conveys a feeling of a very different culture. Not all of the world is like (or wants to be just like) America, and this film shows how despite globalization and McDonaldsization of many aspects of living, important differences remain. There are different cultures, and there are some very different ways of approaching film-making.

Beautifully shot, with moments of humor and beauty, Lavender is a film for all hopeless romantics, or those who sneer at the notion of true love. both parties get their fill, for the film deals with happiness and pain, joy and heartache, love and loss.

Nothing much happens in the film, but the narrative flows smoothly like scented oils on supple skin. There are many moments of sheer beauty, and interesting shots, punctuated by beautiful music.

All in all, the film succeeds in making you feel giddy, whether it's the corny moments, or the many close-ups of Angel. But for sure, either one will make your heart skip a beat.

Film is a health warning as noodles are not that nutritious, standing in the rain gives people colds (seriously do the directors not care?), scented oils breathed in high concentrations cause drowsiness ('therapeutic' or 'placebo' effects worthy of debate), hairdryers can burn, building sites with no harness risky and dangerous (as was encouraged).

After some initial sentiment, film becomes 'person aility assessment' when 2 persons get together in order to get some slack: but let's be honest, cooked excess can be frozen to counteract 'family size' packaging economy and one is mindful that both can learn more real science beyond common sense.

Higher rating as is acceptable to dreamers without too much headbang but the falling from the sky onto a balcony? One only understands if one has tried to fly as a child when confused by holistic 'angel' drawings that aims to stop children pretending to be birds. Advice is to teach them the meaning of 'dew wire' pronto.