| Neil | 3.25  |
I watched this movie fully expecting it to be a complete rip off of the hollywood movie Frequency from a few years ago.. with a love story twist. As I got into the story it became less of an Asian frequency and more of a strange little hybrid of that movie and the amazing Il Mare. Then it changed pace on me once again and turned into something more like Back to the Future. The point of this rambling? This isn't the movie that the box cover would have you expect.
That's a good thing obviously, but it also leads to some of the negative points about the movie. It doesn't flow very well. It has elements of a love story, a thriller and a social commentary but it never really follows any of them through satisfyingly.
Xiao Jia (Gigi Leung of Fat Choi Spirit) attends college in 1981 and has a major crush on Wen Tao who seems to reciprocate her feelings. While playing with a radiophone she begins a conversation with Jia Hui, a student at the same place in the year 2003, and they strike up something of a friendship, confiding in each other about the differences in their societies and their feelings and desires of love.
However things take an unusual twist just as you suspect the two may be falling for each other. I can't say that it was unpredictable and shocking because the twist was always a possibility in a story such as this, but the movie was either intentionally or otherwise filmed to give some red herrings as to how the plot was going to plan out.
The music in this movie is beatiful, the acting is for the most part quite good and the difference between the two decades is striking so credit must be given for style but its the plot that eventually makes this a mixed bag of a movie.
As I said previously it tries to be so many things as a film that it often doesnt tie up things neatly or conveniently. The love story in this movie is for the most part fairly shallow and underdeveloped and actually seem more like schoolgirl crushes than full blown love. The thriller part of this story is a non starter, sometimes the music builds and you wait for something to happen but it never does, and the commentary on the nature of love being the one constant in times and change is very nearly let down by the ending.
Still, underneath the criticisms Sky of Love is a diverting and occassionaly charming movie that is definetley worth taking a look at to decide for yourself but it is no Il Mare.
