This “Limited Edition” Blu-ray from Radiance Films is currently available for purchase.
If you live in North America and watch films from Hong Kong or China, then you may recognize the name of Johnny To because of his crime and action pictures. These include titles like The Heroic Trio, The Mad Monk, Running on Karma, Election, and 2012’s Drug War, which was nominated by a few critic’s groups around the globe for several awards.
But over the years, To has actually worked in a variety of genres, including drama and romantic comedy. Radiance Films is certainly aware of his wide array of pictures, and are now releasing a notable effort to audiences in the western world. Romancing in Thin Air is a rom-com of sorts (although the film historian commentary track disputes this claim) that was a modest success during its original release. It seems that its fanbase has grown over the years and likely will become bigger with its appearance on disc in this part of the world.
The story begins with famous Hong Kong actor/singer Michael Lau (Louis Koo) preparing to marry his girlfriend Ding Yuanyuan (Gao Yuanyuan), who is from mainland China, in front of the media. The ceremony doesn’t go as planned when she leaves him at the altar. Shocked and embarrassed, Michael turns to drinking and ends up staggering around through a remote province in China near a thick area of woods known for disappearances. There, he is discovered at a mountain hotel run by Sue (Sammi Cheng) and her friends. While under his care, he struggles with altitude sickness, but starts to clean himself up and the two even start getting along, despite her distant behavior.
Those who know Sue end up revealing that she was an art student who visited and fell for the shy owner of the establishment, Yang Xiaotian (Li Guangjie). The pair were even fans of Michael, with Sue registered as a fan club member. Shortly after getting married, Yang decided to assist in the search for a lost young girl in the nearby mountains. He never retuned and Sue hasn’t gotten over the loss. In fact, many of the items around the business, including a piano. As they begin to grown closer, long-standing issues of grief get in the way, which they need to deal with in order to start fresh.
The film is gorgeously shot in a mountain community on the mainland and this is one of the title’s strongest attributes. Stars Koo and Cheng also share plenty of onscreen chemistry together, and the movie does a good job of contrasting a media-obsessed Hong Kong culture with a slower-paced and more relaxed vibe of a small village on the mainland. There is a lot of humor here from the supporting cast, but the movie is also understandably melancholy and bittersweet. It also interestingly deals with loss, especially when Sue eventually learns what happened to her husband and Michael considers using the story as a plot in a new movie. The way he decides to portray the real tale in the film makes an impression, with a finale that might remind North American viewers of a couple of more recent Quentin Tarantino features (the first of which was made a few years prior to this effort).
It isn’t perfect. The story of Yang in the woods is a bit preposterous (it would have been more convincing it what had occurred happened over a much shorter period of time). As mentioned, some of the bigger performances emphasizing humor from the supporting cast are perhaps overplayed and don’t sit as well with the serious moments. But the setting is unique and beautiful, there’s plenty of charm on display and the ending, while raising a few questions of its own, is unique and stays with the viewers. This is an effective romance picture, or rom-com if you prefer to see that way.
This movie was made less than 15 years ago, so the image quality on display is excellent. This title was delivered as a high-definition digital file to the distributor. On my television, it looked great. It’s very sharp, with not a speck in sight in either the interior or the snowy natural environments. There are some exceptional shots of the camera moving high above the characters and trees that were either done with a very tall crane or an early drone (apparently, drones came into common usage on film sets in 2012, so both conceivably could have been employed).
The disc’s bonuses are also informative. First is a film historian commentary that provides a wealth of information on the background behind this movie. You’ll learn about the cast’s past credits and how productions currently operate in Hong Kong and China. China is a huge market, and while Hong Kong features had a brief period of independence in the late 1980s and 90s, they largely need the financial assistance of China, especially to this day. Making a movie that takes place partly in mainland China helped the picture find funding and distribution.
You’ll also learn about To’s methods of directing. Reportedly, he rarely wanted a completely script. While the main plot points were always known, the filmmaker liked the natural and improvisational feel of actors using the real environments to influence their behavior. This was quite different from other moviemakers of the era, and notes that To hasn’t been very inspired to make movies in the last seven years because of heavy censorship. Productions are now required by law to present a completed script to the government for approval before they can move forward, and, since he relies in part on making things up on the spot, He’s had difficulty getting his ideas to the big screen.
There is also an interview with the screenwriter, who explains that the story was originally written to be set at a noted “suicide forest” in Japan, but the change in location resulted in him rewriting the story. The results of the move are largely the same, though, and it didn’t greatly change the plot or what occurs in the feature.
And there is a visual essay on To and his little seen (only in this part of the world) romantic melodramas. Additionally, you’ll see a behind-the-scenes featurette from the original Hong Kong Blu-ray, as well as a compilation of behind-the-scenes videos taken during production in 2012. And a trailer for the film appears on the disc as the final extra.
While not everything here works perfectly, Romancing in Thin Air is stronger than early reviews might have suggested. It is an engaging drama with comedic elements that features an interesting and unusual premise that allows it to stand out from others of its ilk. It’s a good film and Radiance Films’ Blu-ray of the title is also wonderfully executed, delivering a very pleasing picture and a number of bonuses that offer a lot of fascinating information about the director and his work in genres that people on this side of the planet rarely get to see. Even if rom-coms or melodramas aren’t part of your typical viewing habits, there’s enough unique stuff in here to make it worth checking out. Pick it up if you have the opportunity.
