Ru guo · Ai (Perhaps Love) poster & wallpaper

Takeshi Kaneshiro, Xun Zhou, Jacky Cheung

A love triangle develops during the making of a musical in mainland China.

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78% liked it

1,064 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 47 min.

Directed by: Peter Chan

Release Date: September 1, 2005

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DVD Release Date: December 18, 2007

Stats: 304 reviews

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Flixster Reviews (304)

  • danmei
    September 8, 2009
    danmei
    This is the first Chinese movie that failed to meet my expectations. Feelings were not reflected well enough. Mediocre.
  • chiangpn85
    July 5, 2009
    chiangpn85
    great story, great songs, great casts, everything's great!! jacky is a big surprise!!
  • rjayrible
    June 9, 2009
    rjayrible
    your a good soper star
  • cscmjulia
    April 10, 2009
    cscmjulia
    always my favorite.A story about reality and life,not love.
  • ekaniki
    March 27, 2009
    ekaniki
    really cool soundtracks!!!
  • zoeychrix
    February 15, 2009
    zoeychrix
    A visual masterpiece. Beautifully shot with a complex story within a story narrative. It is both enthralling and saddening, since the line between reality and reel life is blurred in the film. Sterling acting from the cast, especially the leads. It's a film that builds up and get...( read more)s better and better towards the end. Generally good music too though some were just not to my taste (at the start).
  • sephira081277
    February 12, 2009
    sephira081277
    Nice tale set in a musical setting. nicely shot.
  • palht
    December 6, 2008
    palht
    Amazing movie! The first musical film of Hong Kong after more than 30 years! And this one deserves all the awards and prizes for it. The first thing to praise about is the acting. The three main characters (Sun Na, Lin, Nie) performed really well: I cannot see themselves as actor...( read more)s, I see themselves as the pitiful characters in their own triangle love. Even the minor actor performed excellently, too (Jin Ji Jie from South Korea). Nie, the director in the film, was rather more sinned against than sinning. He was just the victim of the opportunistic Sun Na, Sun Na was the victim of her own opportunism and Lin was the victim of his own fate and love. A little bit tragic movie. The ending is not kind of a fairy tale one, it didn't bring them together nor created happiness for all. In the end, each one went his own ways - like in the real life, though it may seem harsh. Many didn't agree with the ending, but I think it was just fine. It showed that life is like this: too severe to bear, not just like those stories we learned in our childhood. And, you have to pay for what you have done. Love is unconditional, it surpassed everything else in the world, even pride, dignity and opportunism.

    Another plus for this movie is the music. The music is just right; it represents the emotion of the actors, the rising and falling of the scenes. Actually, the music is really adorable: it is not just suitable, it is amazing. And I even think that if the songs are separated from the movie, they will make hits! Both the songs, the actors and the plot raised me to the climax of my emotion. It is one of the best musical movies I have ever seen, after "Moulin Rouge".

    A worthy movie, for those in love and those have been in love.
  • naypf
    November 3, 2008
    naypf
    PERFECT!!!!! What a love story. Songs are touchy!!
  • RabiaSACLIK
    June 30, 2008
    RabiaSACLIK
    Hong Kong's official entry for the 'Best Foreign Film' category of the Academy Awards is a visually ripe post-modern musical which borrows the 'film-within-a film' concept from the glorious 'Singin' In The Rain' (minus the ebullient spirit of the Gene Kelly film) and takes it off...( read more) into the direction of angst-ridden drama.
    Young film star LinJian-dong (Kaneshiro) arrives in Shanghai to start work on the new production by jaded director Nie (Cheung), but his appearance in the cast reveals an ulterior motive. Lin is more focused on his co-star and ex-love Sun Na (Xun) than the actual task in hand and he finds himself haunted by memories of the love they originally shared. Sun has long forgotten the past, though, and pretends that her years scraping a living together with Lin never happened. Art imitates life as the storyline of the film mirrors this drama perfectly and the two stars confront their past through the characters they play. Director Nie also has feelings for his muse though and is troubled by her seeming indifference to him. Gradually Sun's icy demeanour begins to melt and her hidden emotions begin to resurface, a change in character that recalls the woman she once was.
    With a luscious Shanghai setting made to look especially sumptuous by Peter Pao's exquisite cinematography (not to mention Christopher Doyle's work in the Beijing sections), 'Perhaps Love' is a feast for the eyes though offers less nourishment for the soul. That's not to say there isn't much to savour here, but it is an object of wonder rather than a production that engages the audience emotionally. Each character is tortured in that martyred way that seems unique to the worlds of arthouse cinema; much looking into the middle-distance by the players and long, solemn faces attached to the bodies of beautiful film-stars. Peter Chan, though, has tried to dabble in a genre that has only just been rejuvenated in Hollywood let alone really embraced in Asia and for such an adventurous spirit, he deserves acclaim. Chan may not have given us an emotional maelstrom, but 'Perhaps Love' is far from a waste of time.
    Brimming over with spectacle and style, this is the kind of Eastern production that always seems to entice the Western critics perhaps due to its reverence to the great Hollywood musicals of the past. 'Perhaps Love' does not share the usual exuberance that celebrated musicals of the past have enjoyed and takes its themes more from classical opera than the traditional musical. Nevertheless it revels in the visual opulence that films like 'Moulin Rouge' and other Hollywood musicals have been keen to exploit while also reserving its energies for the lavish musical numbers. Peter Chan's film is therefore an accurate conversion of a popular genre, but also an attempt to subvert certain conventions and by so doing celebrate its Asia identity.
    The litmus test for movies of this ilk is obviously the set-pieces and these do not disappoint. A knowledge of Mandarin is an obvious advantage, but the sheer passion behind the songs means that they transcend the language barrier. It also helps that the two male leads have very distinct vocal talents that add their own individual weight to this heady blend. Peter Chan also calls on an array of worldwide talent to give these dramatic routines the stamp of quality they need and the combination of East and West is a joy for the eyes and ears. These also prove to be the more involving moments of the production as the standard scenes of drama lack resonance while there are too many of the aforementioned self-conscious touches that are obligatory in many 'arthouse' films.
    The characterisation may be flawed and the emotional content calculated, but the narrative structure is admirably executed. A post-modern enigma within a puzzle, it toys with our perceptions of reality and what is actually fictional. This succeeds in keeping the viewer alert and offering a gentle challenge that most other genre films rarely provide. While the other short-comings ultimately unbalance the film, the narrative is masterfully manipulated by a director who is not intimidated by the relatively extravagant budget. Chan also plays to the strengths of his cast, letting Takeshi Kaneshiro trade on the pained matinee-idol he often plays and offering Zhou Xun as an exquisite foil for him to play off. Jacky Cheung is good as the troubled director and, despite appearing slightly too young to give the part its full gravitas, gives some indication of what is going on beneath his steely exterior.
    'Perhaps Love' triumphs with its production values, flexibility and ability to fully realise the potential of its exotic setting. Though it disappoints with the actual heart of the film, there is nonetheless something quite welcoming about a work that is so different from the usual fare.

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