Film Name: 朝云暮雨 / 穿婚纱的杀人少女 / Strangers When We Meet
Strangers When We Meet is a watchable film for me, but I went to see it because of Mr Fan Wei’s acclaimed performance. ……
From this point of view alone, my goal of watching the film was achieved. Fan Wei played both the ‘unlucky good guy’ and the ‘hidden villain’ aspects of Lao Qin, and there were many natural, on-point details that made the film enjoyable to watch.
Even Zhou Dongyu’s performance is not bad, as Chang Juan is not a very likable character, and she finds the feeling of stepping on the borderline.
But yeah, the film’s story problem is just too big, it’s almost like two completely different tonal types of storytelling screwed into one text, and the whole film is really too awkward to watch.
The first hour of the film has been well spent on how two ex-prisoners come together, and the process is certainly a bit bizarre and eccentric, but the overall look and feel of the film is pretty good, as well as patiently focusing on people on the fringes of society.
In my opinion, Strangers When We Meet would have been better if it had focused more on Lao Qin’s daily life after his release from prison, showing his disengagement from society, his long-domesticated personality, etc., which would have easily made for a good film (though it might have strayed far from the original theme of the film).
But when the story comes to the fight between Lao Qin and Chang Juan after their marriage, the whole tone of the film changes, and suddenly it goes into the rhythm of the cheating woman and the domestically abusive man, with no padding and no lubrication.
I understand that this is to enhance the complexity of the characters and the plot, but after such a hasty treatment, the previous persona of Lao Qin as the ‘unlucky good guy’ is no longer valid, and Chang Juan has become an awkward being who wishes to die but cannot.
As a result, Strangers When We Meet doesn’t know where to put the story: should it continue the warmth of the previous film and talk about humble but precious love, or should it take the opportunity of the change of tone to go further and describe bitter, deformed and even horrifying desires?
At the end of the film, the part where Lao Qin takes care of Chang Juan, who has been turned into a vegetable, gives me a very weird feeling – under Lao Qin’s careful care, Chang Juan lives a very good life like a puppet on strings, provided that she wants to live, but if she always has the will to die, then the whole show is only thrilling and perverted! ……
And yet, it’s all shot in a positive and sunny ‘love’ light.
It’s like a dish that contains both sweet and savoury flavours, not that it’s inedible, but when two very different flavours, sweet and savoury, are brought together in the absence of cooking, it’s not going to taste any better.
Hey, honestly speaking, Strangers When We Meet has good camera work, aesthetic, scene scheduling, etc., and excellent performances by the actors, so it’s not a bad film, but because of this core problem that can’t be ignored, it’s doomed to spoil the fun and diaphragm the outcome.
Pity, pity.
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