Well, the best point I want to make about Farewell China is the excellent performances by Tony Leung and especially Maggie Cheung. I don’t recall a better performance by either in any other film they’ve done. However, the film is set at a very slow pace and the story is very thin, which is a great shame considering the stars performances. Although the plot has been done several times since, this was one of the first HK films to point out the negative side of Chinese living abroad (especially in New York, where this is based). The story is very depressing, but more dull than sad really, even though it’s clearly supposed to make the viewer sad. It’s also supposed to give the viewer the idea of mystery about what happened to Maggie Cheung’s character, but that doesn’t work either.

I am however still a bit undecided about this film, as this is the first time in about 5 years since I last saw it, and I still don’t know if I either love it or not (a bit like the last reviewer actually). I’m more inclined to love it though really because of the performances, but the story and overall look is pretty poor.

[3/5]