Fan yi cho

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)

The movie is another cool romantic story starring the beautiful Kelly Chen. Although I enjoyed "and I hate you so" more, "lavender" is still an interesting and loveable romantic comedy that you will enjoy. If anything, the movie makes you wonder if it will be the typical angel movie that you have seen over and over again. What makes this movie so interesting is you have an angel who is trying to learn the ways of humans and the person he comes to help is Athena, an aroma therapist who lost her love one and is trying to recreate his "scent". Next door is Chow Chow, a gay man who was in love with Athena's deceased boyfriend. Now comes Angel into the lives of Athena and Chow Chow and things get very interesting because the only way he can survive in Earth is through love. Athena has no love to give because she's depressed and still missing her deceased love and Chow Chow shows Angel what love is by taking him to gay bars and telling him to become an erotic dancer and show him how women love it. It may sound a little corny but if there is one thing that I learned from most Kelly Chen and Kaneshiro Takeshi films is that they are good and I have never really left feeling dissatisfied after watching their movies.

Also important to mention is the music again from the film. Like "and i hate you so", the movie is beautiful and enhances the film. If there was one problem was one scene where the music suddenly cuts off. I blame that on post-production and editing. Otherwise, the movie can ended in somewhat of satisfying but leave you feeling with an "is that it?" but fortunately when you think the movie is over, the true ending of the film comes around and you are left feeling satisfied.

It's difficult to see how Lavender has made itself different to any other 'angel from heaven' romantic comedy. Ok, we may add a little bit of 'Chocolat' in it with Kelly Chen playing an aromatherapist just to spice things up a bit, but ultimately, it follows an all too familiar script.

Kelly Chen plays Athena, an aromatherapist whose boyfriend died in training for the SWAT team. Takeshi Kaneshiro plays Angel, an angel (surprise!) who falls through the roof of her apartment after being caught in a storm. Injured and only being able to survive through being loved, he learns about the human world while he recovers. Throw in Chow Chow (played by Eason Chan), a gay ex- lover of Athena's ex-boyfriend, and you have yourself enough twists to make a tightly plaited rope.

Whilst most of the story follows the motorway, occasionally, there are a few witty moments, which are quite touching. You wouldn't say that Lavender was funny, though. Witty is probably just the word for it.

Kaneshiro does an excellent job of playing Angel, and from the few movies I have seen, he is quite a talented actor. Chen graces our screen, and given that she hasn't dabbled in acting much, I do think she's done well and is one to look out for. However, the lack of on-screen chemistry between the two is missing from the film, and that is a shame because overall, the film is fairly good.

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.

My eyes are still swollen from crying during the last thirty minutes of the film. The lighting was great, I enjoyed the performances and it makes you wonder about the beauty of it all. I will keep my eye on this director and I will look for his previous and future films.