Romancing In Thin Air
Johnnie To
The story: Movie idol Michael (Louis Koo) gets dumped at the altar. He ends up drunk and depressed at a guesthouse in Yunnan run by Sue (Sammi Cheng). It just so happens that she used to be a big fan of his. But there is nothing like a missing, presumed dead, husband who gets in the way.

The next time you feel light-headed at high altitudes, remember, it could be love – or it could just be oxygen deprivation.
After all, this would be an equally, if not more, compelling explanation for why Michael and Sue get together since the vibe between the two stars is more friendly than lovey-dovey.
Indeed, Cheng shares more chemistry with China’s Li Guangjie, who plays the missing-in-action husband Tian.
The Koo-Cheng pairing serves to illustrate the elusive nature of on-screen chemistry. Just because you put two big-name stars together, it does not mean that sparks will fly.
The film does offer little pleasures though, from the striking scenery of Shangri-La in Yunnan to the comic relief from the supporting cast, which includes 1970s screen idol Tien Niu as a motherly doctor.
In one scene with a stalled truck, she even gets to yell out: “I’m back, I never left!”
It is also a pleasure listening to characters speak in both Mandarin and Cantonese, in whichever language is logical, rather than having one dubbed language for the entire film.
Dante Lam’s The Viral Factor (2012) also featured a polyglot of tongues. If this signals a new trend, it is indeed a welcome one.
Since this is a romance, though, the movie has to focus on Michael and Sue and why they cannot be together.
There is a very long flashback about how Sue and Tian fell for each together and how he ended up missing in the snowy woods.
When Michael makes a movie based on Tian’s disappearance, there is a long scene of Sue watching it in a cinema. The effect is not as moving as Hong Kong film-maker Johnnie To thinks.
Instead, it is rather distancing watching Sue watching a film.
We are supposed to be moved by the impossibility of the romance between Sue and Michael as she cannot forget her husband, but Romancing In Thin Air never achieves the gravitas of tragedy.
While not as dire as his last romance outing Don’t Go Breaking My Heart (2011, also starring Koo with Daniel Wu and Terence Yin), this is still far from To’s best work.
(ST)