about love

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

This is one of those three-in-one movies. While the three stories, which take place in three Asian cities, are loosely linked, they are nowhere comparable in complexity to the essentially interlocking stories in 21 Grams. As the matter of fact, the links are not at all necessary, as the stories are independently intact. The links, I suppose, are put there to extract the ooh's and aah's from people who dig such things. Nor is the structure anywhere near the brilliance of Amores Perros.

Although the title is "About Love", the stories touch more on the "pre-love" sentiments sometimes called infatuation, that delicate "click" that starts a bitter sweet relationship which, in time, may or may not blossom into love. Equally interesting, as my summary line suggests, is that aspect of cultural and language barrier that is quite similar to what we see in Japanese Story. Here, however, the gap is smaller as the encounters are within Asian cultures, in each case between two young people, one Chinese and one Japanese. In all three cases, one of the two is going through a tough period after a breakup. Each story, however, has its own unique flavor.

In Tokyo, he is a Chinese computer graphic artist seeking to enrich his exposure while she is a Japanese painter struggling to recover from a broken relationship. This is the simplest and sweetest of the three stories, starting with hidden mutual attraction and ending in their first meeting. This is also the only one of the three stories with a "sub-plot" (a really glorified use of the term) of his friendship with two other art students, both girls, one Chinese and one Japanese.

In Taipei, she is a local girl suffering from a broken heart and he is a Japanese visitor she asks in the middle of the night to help putting up a wall unit. This is the only story with a scene of brief libido drive which, however, quickly subsides. The rest of the story is on his helping her by asking her ex-boyfriend whether there is a chance of getting back together. Among the three, this is the story that plays most on the language barrier thing, with some absolutely hilarious scenes resulting.

In Shanghai, he is a Japanese student renting a room from her mother. She probably has a crush on him at first sight but keeps it deeply hidden when she sees how devoted he is to his girlfriend. But when he gets a postcard from the girlfriend ending their relationship, her attraction to him intensifies, although she never reveals it. This is the most poignant of the three stories. Romance aside, this story also takes a quick jab at the maddening scene of urban development of Shanghai.

This thoughtful film by three capable Asian directors should not fail to delight, even if not enthrall.