Dream Lovers
Director: Tony Au Ting-ping
Year: 1986
Rating: 8.0
Like thunderbolts
across the sky, two HK film legends come together in this fate-laden tale
of immortal love and reincarnation. In no other film (that I have seen)
have Chow Yun Fat or Brigitte Lin taken on roles that felt so personal and
so intimate. Having watched them so often in other types of roles, it is
almost shocking to see these two exchange dialogue such as Chow whispering
“I love to be inside you” and Brigitte caressing him with the reply “I love
it when you’re inside me”. If it had been two other actors it would somehow
not have had the same effect, but coming from Chow and Lin these words and
other intimate scenes made me close to uncomfortable. Of course, at the time
they made this in 1986 neither actor was the icon that they are today, so
watching it now only increases the power and impact of this film.
This supernatural film creates an eerie otherworldly air about it that feels
heavy with impending tragedy and fate. Though there are no ghosts in this
film, memories and flashbacks to another life almost makes the characters
ghostlike – spirits escaped from another time. The film has some very intense,
passionate and tragic moments that are wonderfully acted out. Chow and Brigitte
as well as Cher Yeung give very raw performances that palpitate at times.
Brigitte can be astonishing in a scene as simple as taking a shower after
a vivid dream and scrubbing like mad to get it out of her system. Chow is
brilliant as well in his moments of torment as he has to let one life go and
enter another.
The film begins in wonderfully gripping style as Chow is conducting an orchestral
performance and an image of a terracotta warrior rising from the depths of
the water flashes through his brain. The image of the warrior is his very
own. Chow collapses and his girlfriend (Cher Yeung) rushes to the stage and
shouts his name “Song Yu, Song Yu”. This flows seemlessly into the next scene
in which his name is again being called out – but in a different time
– and a different place - and the caller is Brigitte Lin as she lies intertwined
with Chow in bed. Chow tells her “When you die, I’ll follow you. I won’t fear
the loneliness of death” This scene turns out to be a dream from Brigitte
in modern day HK.
The two of them soon start seeing one another in dreams and images – making
love but also dying – and soon they inevitably find each other in HK. Their
lives begin alternating between light and shadow as they try to understand
the implications of all this. Cher takes Chow to her blind grandmother who
is a witch and the grandmother tells him that he is a man from the Qin Dynasty
– 2,197 years ago and that he and Brigitte had been lovers then. Slowly as
the dreams continue, their past lives become clearer to them, but they must
also deal with what this means to their current lives and what ramifications
it will have on others. Is fate inescapable?
Though the film is fairly slow moving and poetic in its mood and imagery,
at the same time it manages to create a fair amount of tension as these ancient
lovers discover their past life and each other. Yet, I found the resolution
of the film a little unsatisfying and the ending felt abbreviated – I thought
it still had places to go with the story. Still this is one of the classic
HK new wave films of the 80’s directed by Tony Au (Roof with a View and Au
Revoir Mon Amour).
By the way I believe this was the only pairing
of these two stars in a film. It is kind of amazing considering that both
were such huge stars during the end of the 80's until the early 90's - but
for the most part they were doing two very different types of films.
As one last note, the actor who plays Brigitte's
father in the film - Kwan Shan - is in real life the father of another well
known HK actress - Rosamund Kwan.
My rating for this film: 8.0