When I look Upon the Stars
This is a very light soufflé of a romantic
fable with just a tinge of bitter sweetness added to the recipe. If you
are not a Hsu Chi fan (which I clearly am) you should be warned that biting
into this confection could cause a hypoglycemic reaction. In this film
she is as sweet and adorable as a Christmas pudding, but I know there are
some lost bitter souls (!) out there that could react quite negatively
to her performance.
Leo Ku takes a vacation from his job in China
to visit his Chinese girlfriend, Anita Chan, who is living in Tokyo.
They have been together for six years, but he
hasn’t seen her in many months. This does not worry him though because
he has their entire lives planned out down to the number of rooms in their
apartment and the number of kids. Sometimes though life can’t be planned
- things just happen - and it turns out that she has fallen in love with
his best friend - Sam Lee - who is also living in Tokyo as a Manga artist.
Even she can’t explain why - Sam is irresponsible, unfaithful, has no ambition
and is totally goofy looking - but he makes her happy.
Leo can’t fathom this kind of illogical thinking
and feels terribly depressed that he has lost both his girlfriend and his
best friend at the same time. He finds solace though in the company of
Hsu Chi who is a waitress in a coffee shop with hopes of a career in modeling.
She feels sorry for him and asks him to be her boyfriend for 24 hours before
he returns to China. Poor guy. His consolation prize is Hsu Chi! He has
to be convinced to be her boyfriend for 24 hours. Hsu Chi! We have all
been blown off at some point in our lives, but very few of us have had
a Hsu Chi to fall back on. Why don’t things like this happen to me. Maybe
because I don’t live in a celluloid fantasy!
Hsu Chi is like a ray of sunshine strung out
on high voltage caffeine. Seemingly eternally optimistic and cheerful.
So much so that if it was any other actress you would probably want to
strangle her, but somehow Hsu Chi manages to be quite endearing.
Eric Tsang has a small, but well done role as
Leo’s boss who has love problems of his own.
There really isn’t much here when you think
about it, but it is a pleasant enough way to spend some time with some
attractive and interesting young actors. All do excellent jobs, though
Leo reminds me a bit of Leon Lai in both his looks and his restrained performance.
My rating for this film: 6.5
