Comrades, Almost a Love Story (1996)
Reviewed by: grimes on 2000-04-08
The short review: great movie with some really bad music (I loved the Teresa Tang stuff but not the rest of the score). The story of this movie is the relationship between Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai, two mainlanders who come to Hong Kong seeking their fortunes. Maggie's character (Li Chiao) is quite a bit more savvy than Leon's country hick (Li Xiao-Jun) and when they initially meet, she takes advantage of him in her quest for money. Coming as no surprise to anyone, they fall in love. Of course, without any sort of adversity or conflict this story would be dull, and that conflict comes in the form of Li Xiao-Jun's girlfriend back home in the mainland, for whom he still has feelings. Yes, the plot is generic but in this case it is the quality of the execution that makes the film good.

This film spans several years and cities in the lives of the characters, constantly torturing the audience with Li Xiao-Jun and
Li Chiao's unfulfilled relationship. We want them to be together but there is always something getting in the way. The other
thing that tortures the audience is the soundtrack, which is really, really bad, with the exception of several Teresa Tang
songs. I really enjoyed these songs and they fit the mood of the movie quite well. The film has many references to Tang, who
died in the year before this movie was released. Unfortunately, the original music composed for the film is not nearly as
good. It was some of the worst, most over-melodramatic garbage I've heard in a long time. I had to force myself to ignore it
throughout the film. It takes a good scene with a lot of emotion and buries it under waves of sappiness. This is very
manipulative. Instead of letting the viewer feel what they feel just from the story, the music is used as an emotional club to
tell the viewer what they should be feeling. This sort of manipulation is a real problem with films, and is one of the reasons I
avoid watching films from Hollywood. Fortunately, this film manages to rise above this burden.

Maggie Cheung is amazing in her role. She has played the flower vase in many a film, which is a shame given her talent.
Leon Lai is decent but is generally overshadowed by Maggie. This film would have benefited from having someone with more
range in Leon's role, such as Takeshi Kaneshiro. He works well enough as a bemused hick but he could do a better job of
showing the pain his character is going through as his life becomes more complicated.

This film also has a really cool ending, which theoretically was intended as somewhat of a surprise, but which observant
viewers will not be shocked by. Nonetheless, it works well, bringing the film full circle. Watch it and then remember Maggie
Cheung's acting in the 80s. She's come a long way. This film was well-deserving of its many awards.
Reviewer Score: 9