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After yet another cinema hiatus, going to a theater to catch a film is once again a possibility in Hong Kong. Given theaters are still off-limits in many places around the world, the pickings are slim. Then a small menu could be a good way to ease back into things. After shooting out of the gate in late-February with lingering blockbusters, this week screens are splashed with (among others) a minor gem which would otherwise have been overwhelmed by Soul or Wonder Woman 1984, and a New Year rom-com that’s either eight or three weeks late, depending on which calendar you follow.
In Run, we meet Diane (Sarah Paulson) in the midst of a difficult premature labor — shot in hard, suitably harrowing, green light — that very nearly ends in death. Flash forward 17 years and Chloe (Kiera Allen) endures a battery of drugs and physiotherapy to manage her heart, respiratory and mobility issues, but other than reliance on a wheelchair, Chloe is a bright, balanced, college-bound teenager. Diane, however, has a dangerous past that could derail her daughter’s plans, inspiring Chloe to, well, run.
New Year Blues, directed by Hong Ji-Young, written by Ko Myung-Joo and Ham Hyung-Kyung, Starring Kim Kang-Woo, Yoo In-Na, Yoo Yeon-Seok, Lee Yeon-Hee, Lee Dong-Hwi, Chen Duling, Yum Hye-Ran, Yoo Teo and Sooyoung. South Korea, 114 minutes, IIA. Opens March 4. (PHOTO PROVIDED TO CHINA DAILY)
For anyone who’s seen a nefarious parent thriller, the revelations in Run will come as no surprise. The key to director Aneesh Chaganty (in his follow-up to the clever Searching) and co-writer Sev Ohanian’s taut, efficient thriller is in the execution. Instead of making Diane’s secrets the central mystery, the pair positions Chloe’s discovery of them the story’s driver. That’s a wise choice, as Chaganty makes no grand statements about psychology, trauma, independence or control, grounding the film in the tension of Chloe’s (too rapid) realization of what’s going on. Chaganty’s willingness to lean into narrative ludicrousness works, especially with support from Paulson’s flawless interpretation of an unhinged mother unwilling to let go, and Allen going all-in in a performance that’s one part white-knuckle final girl suspense and one-part blow to disabled stereotypes.
Contrary to the gleeful nastiness of Run, New Year Blues is the kind of meandering rom-com nonsense that fans will unabashedly adore, and naysayers will use as Exhibit A, proving their insipidness. Unfolding a week before New Year, four ridiculously attractive South Korean couples navigate different stages of romance. Divorced cop Ji-ho and divorcing trainer Hyo-young connect over a restraining order; corporate burn-out Jae-hun and freshly dumped ski resort worker Jin-A meet while both seek emotional salve in Buenos Aires; travel agent Yong-chan hopes to bridge the gap between his Chinese fiancee Yaolin and sister Yong-mi; and Paralympic snowboarder Rae-hwan and his horticulturalist fiancee O-wol’s relationship is stressed by tabloids and agents.
If you wonder whether all this is going to end on a high note, with much head-shaking and rueful grinning, then you’ve never seen a rom-com. But there’s no denying the inherent pleasure of watching the all-star cast banter and bicker, and the Argentinian (and Seoul) locations for the travel-starved. For every viewer that finds the idea of stalker as plot device distasteful and wonders why director Hong Ji-young (whose 2013 Marriage Blue followed a similar format) never brings the disparate characters together, as is hinted, plenty of others will brush those foibles aside and revel in Blues’ fantastical sentimentality and sunny disposition, and be done with it.
