City Of Glass

On a firework lit New Year's Eve night on the banks of the river Thames, a car accident happens. The victims turn out to be an adulterous couple ($$ID=Leon Lai$$ and $$ID=Shu Qi$$) from Hong Kong. Their respective spouses are surprised at the incident and angered by their infidelity. Consequently, the son (Daniel Wu) and daughter of each party is sent to London to reclaim their bodies back to Hong Kong.

Two troubled teens embroiled in the compromising situation of one's father being in an adulterous relationship with the other's mother, are rightly hostile towards each other, each deflecting the blame for the death of their parents. However, both are forced together in their respective funereal preparations. Going through hidden diaries and old photographs of the deceased, they come to a fuller understanding of their parents' story of deep hidden love, initially refrained and eventually consummated. In an ambiguous conclusion, the teens develop a mutual admiration and perhaps something more.

Narrated through a series of flashbacks, the cinematography is often dreamlike, with parallels between Shu Qi's character and that of Leon's onscreen daughter. In an effective sequence, one views a group of schoolgirls traipsing through the halls of a convent, circa 1960's with the heavy clatter of their Mary Janes. Flash forward and the scene dissolves into its recent incarnation replete with the latest Nike trainers.

The plot is a variation on Clint Eastwood's "The Bridges Of Madison County", with more flash in customary Hong Kong style. The city is portrayed as its title rightfully suggests, one of glass in the words of $$ID=Daniel Wu$$'s character (returning from the US), a metaphor for all that is superficial. In a way, his words perhaps unintentionally belie the film's weakness. $$ID=Mabel Cheung$$'s direction is all impressive technique but perhaps a little lacking in emotional charge, especially when compared to Peter Chan's "Comrades, Almost A Love Story"- to which "City Of Glass" is designed to follow. Nonetheless, the movie is entertaining for all romantics at heart.