[Movie Review] Far Far Away 缘路山旮旯 @ Asian Cinerama "Hong Kong Focus"

 [Movie Review] Far Far Away 缘路山旮旯@ Asian Cinerama "Hong Kong Focus"

 Introduction

Hau 阿厚, a 28-year-old IT Geek, is a mediocre but warm-hearted introvert who finds himself the object of affection for five attractive women in the span of a single year. Except for one peculiar characteristic, the quintet all live in different parts of Hong Kong. But seeing our heartthrob's struggles to get there is half the fun; all of the travelling allows director Amos Why to give his audience a chance to see and appreciate parts of the city that they rarely get to experience.

Who will Hau eventually end up with?

Review

This film's approach to telling a love story is completely unique. Instead of an oppa-like main male lead, as is usually the case in a love story film, they cast a geek-like main protagonist Hau (played by Kaki Sham 岑珈其). This could be a risk because most film productions want to cast someone attractive in order to attract more audiences. However, I thought it was a brilliant move because it resonated more with the general male population and created a sense of relativeness with many male audiences. Kudos to Kaki Sham for creating a believable character that felt natural and authentic to an introvert with cultural relatability to Hong Kong (or Asian) male personalities.

On the other hand, the writing for the five female characters is excellent.

Cecelia So (苏丽珊) portrayed A Lee, an introverted coworker with a pretty face. Her quiet demeanour is a carbon copy of Hau's personality.

Crystal Cheung(张纹嘉) portrayed the role of Fleur, an older woman who wishes to marry and have children before the age of 30. She's like a protective older sister who knows how to look after Hau.

Rachel Leung(梁雍婷) was cast as Mena Man, a seasoned romancer with a fiery, short-tempered, and calculative personality. Because of her love experience, she can offer Hau new perspectives on romance.

Hanna Chan (陈汉纳) played Lisa, Hau's "Goddess" or dream gal in his secondary school, whom he never dared to court due to his low self-esteem. She's the type of girl that many guys would want as a girlfriend because of her beautiful face, love of nature, and overall perfection in many ways.

Last but not least, Jennifer Yu (余香凝) portrayed Melanie, Hau's undergraduate close friend who has completely opposite characteristics to Hau. Rather than being quiet and introverted, she is outgoing, expressive, and has an extrovert personality. Despite their seemingly opposing characteristics, both complemented each other well at work and outside of work.

Aside from the love interests, the film also featured Hao's buddies Jude Law (played by Yatho Wong 黄溢濠) and Tai-Tung (played by Will Or 柯炜林), who were always a great backup and support whenever Hao had love problems!

All of these characters felt strikingly close to many guy's real-life experiences, particularly the various types of female love interests and the buddies.

The acting here is really remarkable with very convincing culturally-close conversations. There are many coarse languages on and off in their conversations. (which, to be honest, is reflective of real life, where people sometimes randomly use some coarse language when talking and expressing themselves in front of their close friends.)

The beautiful scenery shot in remote areas of Hong Kong was one of the film's highlights. In my opinion, this film can easily be used to promote Hong Kong tourism to all of these lesser-known locations. It also highlighted the travelling and journey to get to all of these places, which made me feel like I was on a road trip while watching the film.

A genuine love story with stunning Hong Kong scenery.

This film's pacing is also very well-balanced, taking the audience on a relaxing journey alongside Hau's exploration of his romantic relationship. This sense of tranquillity is something we rarely see, especially in modern romantic genre films.

The audio production also did an excellent job of capturing the essence of the scenes in which Hau interacted with his love interests. The music selection is also excellent, providing the retro HK vibes that are sorely lacking in a film like this.

I thought director Amos Why黃浩然 did an excellent job of capturing the attention of the audience with his film direction and good cinematography. During the post-screening Q&A, director Amos Why discussed how his real-life experience with a long-distance relationship with his wife inspired him to make this film. Jennifer Yu, on the other hand, spoke about her filming experience for the film. She stated how different her real-life personality is from the character she played in the film. Honestly, I really love Jennifer’s depiction of her character in this film. Hopefully she can win best female supporting actress 最佳女配角via this role in the upcoming 第59屆金馬獎59th Golden Horse Awards.

Overall, I adore this film because of its genuine love stories and stunning Hong Kong scenery. Thank you GSCMoviesfor inviting us to review the film during Asian Cinerama "Hong Kong Focus" presented by Asian Film Awards Academy.

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