An older movie I’ve rewatched and only just realised I have no review for it. So here goes.
Turn Left Turn Right (å‘左走．å‘å³èµ°)
Takeshi Kaneshiro, Gigi Leung
Dir: Johnny To, Wai Ka-Fai – 2003 – Hong Kong / Taiwan
Following the worldwide success of Sony’s funding of Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon in 2001, other Hollywood studios opened their eyes to Asia and began to explore the possibility of funding other Asian films, and Turn Left Turn Right was Time Warner’s first foray into the Asian market. And it wasn’t likely to be a bad bet either. Teaming up with Johnnie To and Wai Ka-Fai, a writing and directing duo who have had a string of romantic comedy hits in Hong Kong, and an adaptation of a hugely popular illustrated book in Taiwan, the formula should have worked.
Turn Left Turn Right is an adaptation of Jimmy Liao’s A Chance of Sunshine, telling the story of two reclusive characters, a talented, but undiscovered violinist, John (Takeshi Kaneshiro), and Eve (Gigi Leung), a Polish-Chinese language translator working for a publishing company. Unbeknownst to them, the two have been around each other since childhood, their only face to face encounter when they met on respective school trips as teenagers. Bad luck meant that they never meet again for another 13 years, when another chance encounter brings back memories and thoughts of destiny, only for bad luck to strike again. As each becomes infatuated with the other in isolation, and unable to contact each other again, the only question remains is will they ever get together again.
As a romantic drama, TLTR isn’t bad, it is in fairness, a melodramatic chick flick tearjerker, which has an interesting plot. Coupled with two gorgeous leads, an excellent score and things should be brilliant. But sadly I wasn’t overwhelmed. Despite Johnny To and Wai Ka-Fai’s key role in developing the story, it lacked the magic that have been in some of their previous films. Maybe it was the lack of comedy that drove me to that conclusion and that everything was played too straight? It just didn’t feel like the spark was there. That’s not necessarily the fault of the actors, though. Maybe the characters were just too segregated through the film.
Meanwhile, there is some comedy intertwined to add twists, although involving two more peripheral and obnoxious characters, Dr Wu (Edmund Chen) and Ruby (Terri Kwan). Sadly though, there isn’t enough lift that one expects, particularly when the humour is driven by characters you find difficult to love.
It’s not a bad film, but it’s not a clear success either. It didn’t do as well as Time Warner might have expected for its first pan-Asian offering, but it did at least contribute to a benchmark. Whilst Warner may have toned down their ambitions for Asia, there have been a lot of films backed by Hollywood since. Johnny To, meanwhile, has gone onto further success as he has switched genres to make a series of gangland Triad movies. May be he’ll come back romantic comedies, who knows.
Overall, though, I’d just about recommend TLTR. One for a fairytale moment.
Rating: 
Links:
IMDb Entry for Turn Left Turn Right
Buy this film at YesAsia