Watch Perhaps Love For Free

Strong and Moving!

Good story, Not enough for a whole film

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

There are moments in this movie where the great movie it could've been peek out... They're fleeting, here, but they're worth savoring, and they happen often enough to make it worth your while.

This is a splendid film about the lost of love, the memory of love, the pursuit of love, and the truth of love. It tells a triangle love story. What I like about this film is not how touching the triangle love is, but how touching this story is told.It's directed by a famous Hong Kong's director Peter Chan, and staring by the handsome Takeshi Kaneshiro ("House of Flying Daggers," "Turn Left Turn Right"), the talented Zhou Xun ("The Little Chinese Seamstress," "Beijing Bicycle"), the remarkable singer and actor Jacky Cheung, and the Korean heartthrob Ji Jin-hee.Ten years ago, in Beijing, a Hong Kong film student Lin Jian-dong (Takeshi Kaneshiro) fell in love with an energetic girl Sun Na (Zhou Xun). Sun Na left Jian-dong to pursue her dream to be a movie star, leaving Jian-dong devastated. Ten years later, both of them become big movie stars and their paths cross again when they co-star in a musical. However, the musical's director Nie Wen (Jacky Cheung) also loves Sun Na. Will the old love prevail or will it simply break more hearts? At the beginning, when the music and dancing started, I thought this film is another Hollywood style cheesy musical. I am not a big musical fan, so I got a little worried. That concern quickly disappeared because the heart wrenching story and the marvelous performance settled inside me, deeply. The music and the songs actually move me profoundly. The film brilliantly blends together the musical which two lead characters are filming and the movie itself. The characters are enacting their love affairs through the musical they are playing.I am glad that Takeshi Kaneshiro speaks perfect Chinese in the film, not like how Zhang Ziyi speaks English in "Memoirs of a Geisha." Heck, even Ji Jin-hee speaks darn good Chinese (perhaps dubbed).I shed so many tears together with those characters during the screening of this film. I wonder why. Perhaps, love?

I love this movie.First of all, please do not compare it to Moulin Rouge. Yes, it's opening made it look like a boring musical, but actually the singing and dancing are just eye candies for the audience. The love story presented is simple. I don't even think it as a romance movie. I think of it more as a drama about love more. I guess the reason I felt this way is because I watched the Chinese version (better communication compared to English sub.) and I was in a situation that questioning my own love life. This movie gave me another perspective looking at love relationship.Don't you feel related to any one of them, or part of? How many of us really have something true? Why do you think Sun Na and Lin Jian Dong still break up at the end of movie? Answers can be diverse and it all depends on your own experience. Yes, Sun Na was once Jian Dong's true love. She messed it up. He loved her ten years ago and still presently, but more complicated with hatred, revenge. There is no way they will be together any more.It looks like the movie is talking about a love triangle, but I think it's talking about love in general. I relate it to real life. People can be running away not just from poverty, they can be running away from a bad love relationship, bad family relationship to start a new love relationship. How many of us had relationship like Sun Na and Nie Wen's? (Gain from each other's strength, not necessary in a bad intention.) I bet there are a lot.Anyway, the movie is beautiful. Zhou Xun has always been great. Takeshi did a good job in this film surprisly. Director Chan, I'm waiting for your next great work! No pressure :) When I got time, I will write more.See you.

I've recently watched Perhaps Love again, and the film was even more beautiful the second time around. I've come to find that there are very very few films that successfully capture the struggle of love on-screen, so I was very (and pleasantly) surprised that an Asian film managed it so well. The chemistry between the actors felt real and I loved the soundtrack! Probably the weak points were the choreography and the effects (especially the ending sequence).Btw, the director, Peter Chan, has stressed in interviews that Perhaps Love is NOT a musical, but a love story, so viewers shouldn't be going in and expecting a fare like Moulin Rouge.I liked the way reality and illusions, past and present, were hard to separate in the movie (eg no different usage of colors), because it reflected the inner struggle of the characters; Sun Na, who refuses to believe that her past affects her present; Nie Wen, who thinks that illusions can solve reality's problems; Jian Dong, who cannot separate the past from the present.The saddest part was when Sun Na, after receiving her memoir from Monty, recalled the film that Nie Wen had always wanted to make -- "a simple love story" -- and she said "If that film was ever made, I've always wanted to be in that film...", which reflected her inner yearning for a simple love story of her own, but it never came true. But why did she disagree so strongly with the location of that film that Nie Wen said it would be filmed at? (Qingdao? and Qinghai?, sorry can't remember the exact names) Perhaps it's because even though Nie Wen and Sun Na longed for the same thing in a whole, they also longed for different things that they could not agree upon.There are so many things to discuss about the movie, but I think most of it is subjective; if you know how much love can confuse, hurt, give hope and stumble, you'd probably like Perhaps Love too. Words won't do it justice! All in all, Peter Chan did a great job in capturing the emotions of the characters. Worth a second and third watch!

I like the actors and actress, the set design, the costumes, the songs and dancing. The frames are beautiful. I like the photography, the angles were special. I feel the characters are like communicating with the viewers directly, in a good way - it's the point of view I guess. The dancing segments are wonderful. I particularly like the dancing in the lanes of old Shanghai (the Shanghai Studio Backlots), those street girls, and the wondering Kaneshiro... It's fantastic. A first-class musical scene and performance and design.However, I don't think it's a real musical. Maybe it's not good to judge a film from genres, but it would have felt much better if there were more dancing and singing scenes. The story is perfect for a musical, I mean, simple, melancholy, dramatic. There are simply not enough musical scenes. And it seems to me the girl should dominate the singing, and also Takeshi Kaneshiro. But it seems to me Jacky Cheung is the one who really sings and sings the most - he is a superb singer, but...And the story - I don't think it's organized as a commercial film, but this is obviously a 'commercial-style' of a film. I imagine it would be more enjoyable if the story were told in a clearer way, especially at the beginning, and were told more like a musical with more dancing and singing. So when the viewers walk out of the cinema, their mind still enjoys the visual beauty of the stage and dance, the lingering music and songs, and then feel a bit melancholy of the story - the enjoyment of cinema..Still, I like the film. I've never seen a better Chinese musical.