Perhaps Love
Perhaps Love
PG | 10 February 2007 (USA)
Perhaps Love Trailers

A love triangle develops between the male and female leads and the director during the making of a musical in Mainland China.

Reviews
Invaderbank The film creates a perfect balance between action and depth of basic needs, in the midst of an infertile atmosphere.
Ogosmith Each character in this movie — down to the smallest one — is an individual rather than a type, prone to spontaneous changes of mood and sometimes amusing outbursts of pettiness or ill humor.
Billie Morin This movie feels like it was made purely to piss off people who want good shows
Celia A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.
dbborroughs Why do I love Asian cinema? because the continent seems to be the biggest place in the world where people are in love with film. they break the rules they break the bounds and they make things that nobody else is doing.A musical of sorts, this is the story of an actor who once wanted to be a director, an actress who once loved the actor but now is now involved with her director, and the director who loves the actress even though he knows she may leave him. They are all making a musical film which in movie tradition parallels the triangle that exists in real life.. Its an often jaw dropping, eye popping emotional film. To be sure it doesn't always make complete sense, partly because the frame work confuses things a bit too much, and partly because I don't think all of the elements are there, but at the same time the music, the images and the emotion just carry you along. Many people here on IMDb compare it to Moulin Rouge but I don't think thats fair since this film really only compares to that film in that they are musicals. This is a movie musical that knows what it is and knows how to use the conventions of movies and musicals to great effect.Honestly I'll have to watch it again to determine how much I like it- and yet at the same time I want to go out and show it to people. I want to show it to people and explain- you want to know why I love movies here watch this or If you want to know what a movie is suppose to be watch this. Its magical- from the opening narration about how we are all the directors of our lives- to the final fade out this is pure movie magic.If you love movie or musicals you do want to see this....
YNOTswim This is a splendid film about the lost of love, the memory of love, the pursuit of love, and the truth of love. It tells a triangle love story. What I like about this film is not how touching the triangle love is, but how touching this story is told.It's directed by a famous Hong Kong's director Peter Chan, and staring by the handsome Takeshi Kaneshiro ("House of Flying Daggers," "Turn Left Turn Right"), the talented Zhou Xun ("The Little Chinese Seamstress," "Beijing Bicycle"), the remarkable singer and actor Jacky Cheung, and the Korean heartthrob Ji Jin-hee.Ten years ago, in Beijing, a Hong Kong film student Lin Jian-dong (Takeshi Kaneshiro) fell in love with an energetic girl Sun Na (Zhou Xun). Sun Na left Jian-dong to pursue her dream to be a movie star, leaving Jian-dong devastated. Ten years later, both of them become big movie stars and their paths cross again when they co-star in a musical. However, the musical's director Nie Wen (Jacky Cheung) also loves Sun Na. Will the old love prevail or will it simply break more hearts? At the beginning, when the music and dancing started, I thought this film is another Hollywood style cheesy musical. I am not a big musical fan, so I got a little worried. That concern quickly disappeared because the heart wrenching story and the marvelous performance settled inside me, deeply. The music and the songs actually move me profoundly. The film brilliantly blends together the musical which two lead characters are filming and the movie itself. The characters are enacting their love affairs through the musical they are playing.I am glad that Takeshi Kaneshiro speaks perfect Chinese in the film, not like how Zhang Ziyi speaks English in "Memoirs of a Geisha." Heck, even Ji Jin-hee speaks darn good Chinese (perhaps dubbed).I shed so many tears together with those characters during the screening of this film. I wonder why. Perhaps, love?
Lester Mak (leekandham) Perhaps Love is an unusual film from the East in that it is a musical. Jacky Cheung plays an acclaimed movie director, Nie Wen, who gave the major break to his girlfriend Sun Na (Zhou Xun) years ago. Once again, he's cast her in a musical film which tells of a love triangle between the leading lady to be played by Sun Na, her former boyfriend played by Lin Jian-Dong (Takeshi Kaneshiro) and a circus director played by Nie Wen. Little does Nie Wen know that there are too many similarities between his script and real life, as Sun Na and Lin Jian-Dong have a past from 10 years before.Our film unravels, showing the parallels between Nie Wen's film and flashbacks of the story between Sun Na and Lin Jian-Dong. Despite the potential for it being clichéd and full of the boring old scenes from other romantic stories, it does turn out to be innovative and full of a few twists to keep the interest going. Plus Nie Wen's musical film gives some beautiful songs and choreography that occasionally bridge fictional and real life, so good in fact, that they would fit in well in some good West End/Broadway musicals.Jacky Cheung, fresh from his almost endless tour round Asia in the stage musical production, Snow.Wolf.Lake, demonstrates in the movie why he is the king of the musical stage in Asia. His unique, powerful singing voice shines like a heavenly king's should. Takeshi Kaneshiro was a pop star in his youth and sings well (and just in case you wondered, not at all like the drunken scene in House Of Flying Daggers when Zhang Ziyi dances). But the acting honours go to Zhou Xun, who didn't actually have many singing parts, but her acting shone through as exceptional. She effectively plays three characters in this movie (Sun Na in her youth and as the diva, and the character in Nie Wen's film), and she makes the transition between those characters so effortlessly. She is for me a real talent in the making, a Zhang Ziyi but with real acting ability aside from looking innocent. It is no wonder then, that she won the HK Film Critics Award in 2006 for best actress, beating a whole host of stars and is up for the same category the coveted Hong Kong Film Awards in April 2006.Peter Chan's visionary directing is as strong as ever. The film has some amazing sets, costumes and choreography that brings it to life. The cinematography is almost Christopher Doyle-esquire. Given Chan's other recent success (as producer) being Dumplings in the Three... Extremes films, I'm now looking forward to what Chan has to offer next.The film is bound to create some more interest in Chinese musicals in the future, and I'm hoping that we'll see a film version of Jacky Cheung's Snow.Wolf.Lake. And there is an appetite for it internationally too, as Perhaps Love was widely praised when it closed the 62nd Venice Film Festival. In Hong Kong, it received good reviews, is nominated for 11 HK Film Awards and was Hong Kong's official entry into the Oscars (although it hasn't been nominated) This is a gorgeous film and definitely worth watching. One for an emotional tug on the musical heartstrings.
Charlie Wu It's really wonderful to see such an emotional film so beautifully executed. I thought that this film has the eye-candy of Molin Rouge but with a far more convincing performance from all of the actors involved. There literally isn't a weak link in the chain, and I think it really is very original and genre defying, and refreshing to see such a gorgeous film come out of Asian cinema that's not a kungfu film. It's too bad that the buzz for this film hasn't really started in the states, but I'm hoping that more people will hear about it. It's soooo much better than Seven Swords or Anything "Asian" that Hollywood has served up recently. And far more entertaining.