Always

Always

source: Always

A love story taking place in Hong Kong is fraught with conditions dictated by family's traditions. The scenes are a bit wonky at times, yet there's an overall cohesive quality that keeps the story engaging. The journey is beautifully filmed with an artistic viewpoint and gorgeous audio ambience. If you're a fan of independent films, this may be a pleasant surprise.

My 'movie stream provider' mistakenly swapped the 1989 Spielberg movie for this one. I gave a try. I noticed right away the low-budget feel and corner-cutting (the on screen app messages are a terrible idea). It makes good use of locations, though. The acting is amateurish but I remained curious about the plot. Big mistake. The situations seems like a set up for something that never comes. That's a pedestrian movie that won't last in your memory. I think writer/director/actor lost the opportunity of doing something more ambitious given the creative control. For the Spielberg movie, I also gave a 2/10.

The sort of film that makes you play Delius's 'Walk to the Paradise Garden' a few times. Skillfully filmed and generally very well acted. Hard to get the penultimate(ultimate?) night out of ones head. How many times have we rewriten the ending in our minds, or even lived parts of the tale? Now watch 'Burning'!!

Everything in this film felt very real. The romance, the friendship, the work life of Liam. When he goes to China, I thought he was going to get the girl, but instead he realized he was never going to be with her. At least not in this lifetime. Unfortunate circumstances in this modern age, in his pursuit of happiness, he took the wrong path and is left nowhere. He must pick up the pieces of his life and start over.

There was another movie that came out around the same time "Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong" and 2+ reviewers overtly mention it in comparison slamming this film who are blatantly from their crew. The lack of integrity of these individual(s) is appalling. I enjoyed this movie. It was good. I'm not a movie reviewer but since I saw the Paramount release sign in the movie while watching it, I assume other movie people thought it was good too. Anyways, it's just a movie but feel compelled to write this because I was moved emotionally watching it.

This has happened to me! The two characters Yan and Liam remind me of the relationship I had in Hong Kong with a mainland Chinese. She came from a wealthy family and had serious issues with my family background, or at least her father did. Despite having been fairly successful in my career, it was never good enough. This happens a lot and it's partly a cultural thing but also a part of the one child policy. So real. So so very real.

I was totally expecting the standard happy Hollywood-style ending and it totally got me. I was like No!!!! That totally sucks for him. But I guess that's real life right? The film is so reflective of the changing times we live in and how small the world is right now. Asia is so sophisticated, it's no longer the third world we think of it as. They are the leaders in the world right now.

I saw this movie in China as I live in Shenzhen right now working at a technology company. It has an 8.5 rating on Tencent/Wechat(China's largest VOD and tech company) and has millions of views, but maybe since this is a US site, people are not aware of it? Derek Ting is very popular there with this and other movies. I highly encourage anyone interested in China and Hong Kong to watch it. It's a great love story and one that happens a ton. It's in English which is a huge bonus for me!