#Comrades: Almost a Love Story

[byneddiedingo]

Comrades: Almost a Love Story (Peter Ho-Sun Chan, 1996)

Cast: Maggie Cheung, Leon Lai, Eric Tsang, Kristy Yeung, Christopher Doyle, Tung Cho "Joe" Cheung, Irene Tsu, Yu Ting, Michelle Gabriel. Screenplay: Ivy Ho. Cinematography: Jingle Ma. Production design: Chung-Man Yee. Film editing: Ki-Hop Chan, Chi-Leung Kwong. Music: Tsang-Hei Chiu. 

[vietgiorgio]

"The message is... bye bye."

Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996)

Director: Peter Chan

Cinematography: Jingle Ma

[pandasmagorica]

Memory reach: Comrades: Almost A Love Story

OK, flying by the seat of my pants here, working on pure memory. I am one of those lucky people who knew what Jim was talking about when, in Moonlight Chicken, he told Wen about the movie Comrades: Almost a Love Story. I saw that movie many years ago here in San Francisco, either at a film festival or at one of the three theaters, alas, long gone, which used to show movies from Hong Kong. It's a great movie. I remember it in particular as the movie that showed me that Lai Ming (namesake of Li Ming in Moonlight Chicken) could act; before that, I had not been impressed by his acting abilities (although I'm not sure where I might have gotten that impression, as I can't seem to be able to figure out which of his earlier films I might have seen, so it may have been a false memory even at that time). But it really is a great movie and worth hunting down. Unfortunately, it doesn't seem to be available on any of my current streaming services.

(Edit: Worldcat lists Comrades' availability in various editions.)

So yes, having to go on a memory of a movie I probably saw about 25 years ago as well as the description on MDL. I've reconstructed my memory about it from two important real world events which happened during the course of the movie: the 1987 closure of the Hong Kong Stock Exchange for four days and the 1995 death of Teresa Teng. Please forgive me for errors of fact in describing the movie.

I also suggest reading @telomeke's post on the connection between Comrades: Almost A Love Story and Moonlight Chicken and @waitmyturtles' post on the same subject, as they will likely be much more coherent than my post which follows. Nevertheless, I am thinking about that movie, want to discuss it here, and will plunge forward with my two Hong Kong cents.

Basically, it's about a long time flirtation between two people who meet after emigrating from mainland China to Hong Kong around 1985 or 1986. Qiao, played by Maggie Cheung - who does a great job as well, and always has yes - knows Cantonese, the language of Hong Kong, and is a bit of a schemer. Jun, played by Lai Ming, is a bit simpler and speaks Mandarin. After Qiao's attempt to cheat Jun, they somehow wind up attracted to each other. However, Jun has a fiancé back in China and Qiao falls in with a mob boss, so although – if I recall correctly – they do have an affair, they never fully connect or wind up with each other. Not sure the exact sequence, but at some point in the film the 1987 stock exchange debacle happens and Qiao is wiped out financially. Possibly that is the trigger for her winding up with the mob boss. And Jun marries his fiancé. I think. Again, my memory of the film is hazy.

Full disclosure: Although I have long known and like the song which opens every Moonlight Chicken episode, I am not a Teresa Teng fan and don't recall that aspect of Comrades beyond: the one scene that I will mention in the forthcoming spoilers, and that the Cantonese title of the film is a title of one of her songs.

The theme of the film seems to be that even that if people might be right for each other, the time may not be right for them to be together. Jim echoes this explicitly in his dialogue with Wen in Moonlight Chicken.

Although the focus of this post is the movie and not the series, I do want to give a side prop to Khaotung for being willing to be caught on screen singing that song badly. This goes hand-in-hand with Ohm's destruction of If You Don't Love Her You're Crazy in that bar scene in He's Coming to Me, another Khun Aof series.

Before we get to the spoilers, another Maggie Cheung film I can recommend is Alan and Eric: Between Hello and Goodbye. Warning: it's a weepie. I've also seen her in Days of Being Wild and Behind the Yellow Line but I don't find it either of those films particularly memorable.

Spoilers follow

Back to the movie:

Flash forward 10 years. Both of them wind up in New York City, both now single, still separate and unaware that the other is not far away. Qiao is picked up by immigration authories but escapes. She winds up in front of an appliance store with a window full of televisions. A news story is playing about the death of Teresa Teng. She turns, and also watching the story is Jun. They recognize each other and smile. End of scene.

The film then flashes back to one of them arriving in Hong Kong on the train from China. They get off the train in one direction. The camera pulls back and we see the other one get off the train in the other direction.

So the film is kind of a variation on the idea of people who are destined to meet. In this case they meet very quickly, but just can't manage to be together because the timing is wrong. We don't even know whether they get together this time because the film has cut away. We hope they'll succeed this time, but technically it's an open ending.

It is truly a beautiful film and I recommend tracking it down and watching it if you can.

While there are some parallels between Comrades and Moonlight Chicken, an open ending is not one of them. Please don't let the potentially ambiguous ending stop you from watching Comrades.

[tinnchan]

COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY (1996) - directed by Peter Chan

"Remembering you in the rain, the tears were scattered all over the ground."

For @praninlove

[cinemaronin]

Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996)

甜蜜蜜 Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996)  directed by Peter Chan

[notokra]

[maggiecheungs]

comrades: almost a love story (1996) dir. peter chan

[silverscreencaps]

Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996)

[filmfits]

Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996)

[voluntarydemise]

Loved how he put all those coats on her only to take them off again after.  Maggie Cheung and Leon Lai in Peter Chan’s “Comrades: Almost a Love Story” (1996)

[rachelmygod]

Comrades: Almost a Love Story (Peter Chan, 1996)

[hajungwoos]

Maggie Cheung in Comrades: Almost a Love Story, Tian Mi Mi (1996) dir. Peter Chan

[tinnchan]

COMRADES: ALMOST A LOVE STORY (1996) Directed by Peter Chan

Goodbye my love，我的愛人再見, Goodbye my love，從此和你分離,

[gugumbathraw]

Maggie Cheung in Tian Mi Mi | 甜蜜蜜  (1996) dir. Peter Chan

[filmografie]

Favorite films watched in March 2021:

The China Syndrome (1979), dir. James Bridges

Comrades: Almost a Love Story (1996), dir. Peter Chan

Dear Comrades (2020), dir. Andrei Konchalovsky

Mandibles (2020), dir. Quentin Dupieux

Quo Vadis, Aida? (2020), dir. Jasmila Žbanić

Wolf’s Hole (1987), dir. Věra Chytilová

The Mole Agent (2020), dir. Maite Alberdi

[maggiecheungs]