Film Review: ‘Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong’ features its share of charms
In “Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong” — the feature directorial debut of Emily Ting — a pair of attractive thirtyish strangers meet cute and end up walking around Hong Kong for much of the night, just chatting. To put it another way, this is what Richard Linklater’s “Before Sunrise” would look like if France were populated by Asians.
That’s a facile comparison, but it’s so obvious as to be unavoidable. To Ting’s great credit, she is not shy about stating her love for Linklater’s walking-and-talking trilogy.
The structure of the story is slightly clunkier than “Before Sunrise,” which cleaved tightly to unities of time and place. Here, during the first 20 minutes or so, Josh (Bryan Greenberg) — taking a breather from a crowded birthday party — spots Ruby (Jamie Chung), a tourist who seems to be lost.
The little irony here is that, genes notwithstanding, Ruby is completely American (from our own Arcadia, it seems), while Josh, an expat New Yorker, has lived in Hong Kong for a decade and can converse in Cantonese. So the gweilo acts as a tour guide for the ethnically Chinese innocent. (The single least authentic ethnic touch is that neither Ruby nor Josh, a nonreligious Jew, seems to know what “meshuggener” means.)
He escorts her to her destination, and they chatter, awkwardly at first. There is definitely unspoken romantic chemistry between them, with Ruby the more obviously smitten...until Josh’s girlfriend calls him from the party he abandoned.
This throws a bucket of cold water on the burgeoning attraction. More frequently, women who want to discourage an unwanted suitor drop a mention of their boyfriend/fiance/husband, but in this case, she’s the one who’s, in a manner, hot to trot. They have a sort of argument over whether Josh should have mentioned his girlfriend up front, but that would have telegraphed an assumption that Ruby’s into him. It would seem arrogant, even if true.
We expect one to run after the other, so the night might continue, but suddenly — 25 minutes in — we jump to a year later. Amazingly, given the population of Hong Kong, Josh and Ruby bump into each other on a ferry and continue their ambulatory gabfest, but this time their cards are on the table — literal cards, in fact, when they consult a fortune teller (played by veteran comic actor Richard Ng).
As history repeats itself, the suspenseful questions are: Will they? Won’t they? And exactly what level of engagement are they willing and won’ting about?
Well, I’m not going to tell you, except to say: Ting doesn’t take the easiest way out.
The most crucial elements in this sort of film are the quality of the talk and the charm of the characters. In this example, they’re not bad, but not on the level of “Before Sunrise.”
Where the film beats “Before Sunrise” is its backdrop. We all have an image of Vienna — from movies if not from life. It’s quaint and romantic. In comparison, Hong Kong is a jolt of amphetamine, a riot of noise and colored lights, with throngs of people everywhere — a bigger version of Times Square on New Year’s Eve.
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ANDY KLEIN is the film critic for Marquee. He can also be heard on “FilmWeek” on KPCC-FM (89.3).