Daan san nam nui

This romantic-comedy was shown at the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival recently and the big deal among the media was that the movie was in Mandarin instead of the usual Cantonese. Obviously an attempt by the film-makers to penetrate the Mainland box-office. For viewers elsewhere, however, "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" will probably be a long-drawn, meet-cute and act-cute love triangle that stretches for almost two hours.

Thankfully, the movie somehow manages to maintain its charm (even if it looks contrived and phony) throughout the proceedings - thanks to the chemistry of the three leads.

When the movie opens, we find Zixin (Gao Yuan-yuan) getting dumped by her boyfriend (Terence Yin) who is married. We can understand her subsequent caution with men, especially when she tries to recover from this heartbreak that makes getting rid of her past (those photos, gifts and even a pet frog) rather difficult. Helping her to turn over a new leaf is a street drunk named Fang (Daniel Wu) who is actually a disillusioned architect. Fang helps Zixin 'get rid' of her ex-beau's mini-bar collection and even take cares of her "ugly" pet frog, while she helps him get back to drawing.

Zixin is also attracted to Cheng (Louis Koo), a fund manager who works in the building opposite her office. She watches him through the glass wall daily and they 'communicate' by sticking Post-It notes on their respective windows. Soon, Cheng, a playboy at heart, takes over the troubled company she works for - and starts wooing her in earnest. Will she forget Fang, the friend waiting in the wings, or will she keep a promised date with him? Ultimately, the big question is: who will she pick, Cheng or Fang? It takes a long long time for Zixin to decide - and the title is rather apt. Having had her heart broken, Zixin is definitely going to break the heart of one of her suitors. We are kept guessing which one. This is the most demanding role yet for Gao Yuan-yuan and it is evident that she has what it takes to be the leading lady. She makes us root for Zixin throughout the movie, even if we find her indecisiveness irritating.

Koo and Wu are veterans in their role and they pull it off easily. However, Koo's Cheng seems rather implausible. The writers have gone overboard, having Cheng buy an apartment and a Maserati car as gifts for a girlfriend at a time when the economy (during the 2008 downturn) calls for prudence and accountability. Wu is the more pathetic of the two and his Fang even cooks! Chalk these up as the film-makers' attempts to wow the women in the audience. This chick flick makes for an entertaining date movie, though. (limchangmoh.blogspot.com)

The movie goes along the story of someone hanging between two choices which appear easy to choose between, but the 2-hour story tries to show you how we follow our heart even in situations that require sense (every romantic movie is built on this but here they concentrated on it to make the movie warmer).

The story gave me some hope in life as everyday there many opportunities given to us but most of the times we don't notice them

The time factor in the development of relationships is not given the required attention it's either too long or noticeably short.

I expected an open end but thank god it was satisfying.

Right, well Hong Kong cinema is well known for its sappy romantic comedies, right up alongside with the hardcore action movies. And being a sucker for all things Asian and Hong Kong cinema in particular, of course I jumped at the chance when I was given it to sit down and watch "Dan sun nam nui" (aka "Don't Go Breaking My Heart").

Initially I had not even heard about the movie prior to finding it by sheer, random luck. But seeing that it had both Louis Koo and Daniel Wu on the casting list, of course I was more than intrigued, because these are definitely among the more established of actors in the more recent cinema.

The storyline and plot in "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" was fairly straight forward, even for a romantic comedy. But don't be scared off, because that doesn't mean that the movie wasn't entertaining. I happened to find the movie rather enjoyable and entertaining, to be honest.

I am not overly familiar with Yuanyuan Gao, but I must admit that she really carried the movie quite well with her charming personality on the screen and her ability to bring lots of emotions and charisma to the movie.

If you enjoy Hong Kong cinema and have a taste for the romantic comedies, then you definitely should take the time to watch "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" if you have the chance.

I have to admit there was a little bit of apprehension going into the movie because Johnnie To's recent effort Linger continues to linger in my mind as one of the worst romantic films seen in recent years. No doubt I'd prefer To's gangster flicks, but sometimes market forces and demand dictates opportunity that cannot be passed over. So with his usual Milkyway crew and regular cast such as Lam Suet, Louis Koo and Daniel Wu, To and frequent collaborator Wai Ka-Fai make another attempt at the romantic genre with this film that proves, thankfully, to be notches up from Linger.

And perhaps one of the positives coming out from the film which aided in its enjoyment, was the fact that the language track was left unmolested here by the powers that be. It's in a smattering of Cantonese, Mandarin and some English, which in all likelihood reflects the cosmopolitan nature of Hong Kong society with its foreign base from the occasional Indian, Caucasian, and of course the influx of Chinese from Mainland China. In the past all utterance of spoken Cantonese would have been dubbed over, so this is yet again another small but successful push of the envelope in our local cinema scene.

One of the two opening films at this year's Hong Kong Film Festival, Don't Go Breaking My Heart tells of a love triangle between three characters brought about by the indecision of the girl Zixin (Gao Yuan Yuan), who journeyed from Suzhou to Hong Kong to follow her boyfriend, find herself being dumped, and becoming the object of affection of both a drunkard bum Qihong (Daniel Wu), and a self-made finance industry CEO Shenran (Louis Koo). Her budding relationship with Qihong comes from the latter saving her from an accident while in her post- dumped, delirious state, and becoming the surrogate owner of her ex-boyfriend's frog. Qihong soon disappears for the most parts of the first hour, and here's when Shenran becomes her target. Yes, you heard that right, because the lass does what you can do in today's Internet age, and discovers he's a mighty fine catch with the kind of money in his possession.

Set about the time of the Lehman Brothers debacle, Shenran becomes Zixin's boss, and a relationship with a subordinate is nothing to frown upon, having to fast forward their relationship through the throwing of a Masserati and a luxury condo penthouse at Zixin. Impressed, her mind's almost made up if not for the re-entry of Qihong into her life, now reborn into a new lease of life going back to the architectural profession he turned his back on, in an office located opposite Zixin's. And this is perhaps one of the brilliance of the story, with the trio able to engage in romantic shenanigans through their office windows, and this is something that is extremely plausible given the close proximity of buildings in Hong Kong that Singapore too is emulating given our scarcity of land and exorbitant office rentals.

Is the modern relationship defined by material wealth, with no money being having no honey? It certainly seemed so in this romantic tale, where Zixin doesn't even bat an eyelid at Qihong at first given his bum like appearance and lack of prospects, and her obvious delight when discovering Shenran is an alpha-male who rock climbs and having riches beyond her wildest dreams. And even though Shenran's been proved a playboy and a cad time and again with the amount of cleavage that he can't take his eyes off from, leaving him becomes that impossibility given the opportunity costs that goes along with it. As for Qihong's, he's a little bit of a softie and a nice guy that tries really hard to get the girl, being that sentimental man hanging onto every sliver of memory from the past, taking care of a frog for companionship, and the perfecting the art of cooking mussels from a restaurant that he shared a meal with Zixin once.

What made this film work is the chemistry amongst the trio, that while you may not like their characters, they're made believable through the actors' performances, except perhaps for parts when you know Zixin's behaviour in the real world would lead to her being fired from her job. Lending supporting star power are JJ Jia as Qihong's assistant and Shenran's temporal dating distraction, and Lam Suet (this is Milkyway after all) as the atypical office kay-poh to provide some much needed comic relief as the film propels toward the third act that relied on plenty of cheesy moments to try and wrap it all up. But being made for the Chinese market would mean toeing a very conservative development, and providing that air of affluence to target trap its intended audience - overnight roundtrip flight from Hong Kong to Shanghai, anyone?

At least the film had the courage to resolve this messy triangle, unlike its Hollywood counterparts which would opt to keep things ambiguous or open ended just because. But having to come to a decision was a long drawn effort that bloated the runtime to close to two hours, and an abrupt ending that didn't do much justice to one of the characters, having just shown a purposeful change that made it more like an act put up instead. However this is a romantic comedy meant as a date movie, with Hong Kong providing most of the backdrops in which stories get told, though with the Milkyway brand I was half expecting some form of thuggery to appear in a shoot them up.

He'll /try/ his /best/ to be faithful to her, he says. "There's only 2 kinds of men: Those who cheat and those who want to," he qualifies, just so she knows how noble he is and how very, very difficult it will be to follow through on this intention. That's one prospective boyfriend's pitch for her affections. Zixin is looking for the "3rd kind".

DGBMH is a 2011 125-minute Hong Kong release that is rated 91 on AWiki. It's an engaging and tasty little morsel that decries the concept of false-choices in relationships. Don't only follow your heart - give a listen to your head as well.

So far, Zixin hasn't used her head enough. "Here, take my seat," Zixin says to the pregnant lady on the bus. When their eyes meet, they realize who they are; who /SHE/ is. Zixin is the ex. 🤰Preggers is the current gf of Zixin's ex-bf. Mr. Ex catches up with them on the bus. When he sees Zixin, his mouth starts flapping: 'Hold onto my liquor and my other items, and take care of my frog. I will pick them up soon...' Zixin's ex has no shame. She /should/ have known that already, /long/ before she ever shacked up with him.

Preggers has a meltdown.

Ex asks ZIXIN to leave the 🚎! His gf is too upset, and /she's/ pregnant, afterall...

After storming off of the bus, Zixin almost gets run over. A bum just manages to snatch her out of the way, saving her life. So she's still alive (physically), but Zixin is not living her best life right about now.

S'all gud, though. At work she's window-flirting with the hottie-in-a-suit across the road. He's been waving, putting up flowers made of post-its, doing magic tricks, and today he asked her out - all by way of sign language from the office building across the way. They are finally gonna meet for coffee.

What Zixin doesn't realize is that the woman in the office under her has also been signaling to hottie dude. Which one of them has he been asking out?

On the way for coffee, Zixin runs into her savior-bum. As a way of 'Thank you' she offers to give him all the stuff her ex-bf left at her place. Frog n' all. This leads to an epic date. It's not a date, officially... But it /IS/ a date. It happens a couple nights later. He approaches her with a wad of cash. Apparently, he sold most of the stuff. He says she can't take the money home. They have to spend it. First, he takes her for a haircut. ('How long have you had that hairdo?" Did /he/ like your hair long?) Next, it's: "Do you have to wear dark clothes at work?" 👚👢👗👡👖👠👙 New wardrobe! Then it's good food. Zixin learns that this bum is an award winning architect who has been trying to dig out of a pile of life's rubble with a shot glass.

She walks Into work the next day with a spring in her step. She's flowing. Everyone & everything else stops. Zixin is a totally new person, overnight. She's officially a hottie. (Never underestimate the power of a good hairdo, and don't neglect your physical self & health). Things go lopsided when half of her firm loses their jobs in the aftermath of the Lehman Bros 2008 collapse. Their new boss is someone from across the street.

Daniel Wu (Go Away Mr. Tumor!, New Police Story) plays Kevin Fong. He was a brilliant architect. Now he's a drunk. Louis Koo Anita (The Road Less Traveled) portrays Zhang Shen Ran. He's a red blooded man, and he likes women. Zixin is extremely attracted to him, but must ask him, based on his description of the two kinds of men, will he become a Martian after they marry? Gao Yuan Yuan (The Qin Empire, City of Life and Death) is the girl, Cheng Zixin. They were all upstaged by Froggy, though.

At the helm we have a team. Wai Ka Fai (Looking Back in Anger, Fat Choi Spirit) is screenwriter/director. Johnnie To, of Running Out of Time, co-directed, and there's two more screenwriters: Ryker Chan (Blind Detective) & Jevons Au (Distinction).

The theme is choosing the right one, not the one you /want/ to be the right one. The right one will naturally have a positive effect on us. The confidence that stems from a positive love relationship will always spur us on to better things. Zixin already did change the right one. And he changed her. And that was all without trying. The wrong one was never going to change.

I used to say that one shouldn't marry unless one feels s/he can't live without the other person. That is not untrue, but it's not a good enough litmus test. Marry the person who feels most like home. That's what you'll be trying to build with the person - a home.

In the end, Zixin's choice was easy.

〰🖍 IMHO

📣7.9 📝7 🎭8 💓6.5 🦋4 🎨6 🎵/🔊6.8 🔚7.3 🤗7 ▪ 🌞4.8 ⚡2 😅3 😭2 😱1 😯2 🤢0 🤔5 💤0

AAge15+ sexual content; Language: @$$h0le. Rated TV-PG-13: Parents Cautioned

Re-📺? Would

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