New York Asian Film Festival 2024 (July 12-22 FLC) REVIEWS

[Chris Knipp]

CHEUNG TIN-FU,SANDRA NG IN LOVE LIES

HO MIU-KI: LOVE LIES (2023)

The long tease of an online romance becomes a charmingly inverted rom-com

Love Lies is a touching and teasingly suspenseful Hong Kong feature debut starring an energetic and brilliant Sandra Ng (Zero to Hero, NYAFF 2021) as Veronica Yu, a wealthy, widowed gynecologist whose (seemingly) deepening relationship on a dating app is actually, unbeknownst to her, with a charming but rather native online deceiver, who begins having second thoughts abut the well-orchestrated running scam he's become the center of. Is there some affection wafting about amid the deceptions?

The film's costar is K-Pop star Cheung Tin-fu young, as the fledgling con artist, whose nom-de-scam is simply "Boy." "Boy" has just joined a whole office full of pro scammers as a trainee. (These thihgs, sadly, do exist.) Veronica is his first connection, and he is being constantly coached on what to say to her, supervised by the Man in White and given practical minute-by-minute tips by an out-there femme fatale love scam expert buoyantly played by Stephy Tang.

But Love Lies is above all a two-hander, shifting back and forth mainly between the mutually uncomprehending two points of view of young "Boy" and "Veronica." Both are, from the start, deceivers. She pretends to be merely a young nurse, though her wealth is soon revealed. He pretends to be a middle-aged French engineer, a faux persona carefully calculated by the scam team as most likely to appeal to this Chinese lady of a certain age.

Various things make this movie work well. The eternal appeal of love stories, because this is one of those, though a strange one; the excitement of deceptions; the suspense waiting to see whether the secrets will come out; and ultimately whether this odd "couple" will finally meet. There's also the fascination of the way, while the middle-aged doctor becomes more and more enamored of her French engineer fantasy, as "Boy, thae "K- Pop star (who no doubt has plenty of experience with public images) goes through a metamorphosis from gangly young rube to smooth, well-dressed, fashionably-bespectacled young operator; and from eager trickster to someone with mixed and gentler feelings.

The lady is lonely, a widow, and middle aged, and sometimes this shows. But Sandra Ng sparkles and is stylish. Veronica wears her hair short, blonde-dyed and up to date and her bright, nifty outfits show her to be every inch the accomplished professional woman. In fact she is an ob-gyn doctor who is frequently delivering babies, though we don't see that. But though she is a smart woman, "Boy" and his handlers are skillful in both teasing out her affection and tricking her - as is their basic aim all along - into sending large amounts of money to her "French engineer." Veronica remains adamant that she knows she may be throwing away money, and doesn't care. Part of the con victim wants to be deceived. The giddy pleasure of living with an illusion that a con brings can, for a while anyway, be worth the financial cost: Veronica thinks so.

"Boy" isn't hardened like his handlers, and perhaps he has developed some of the same affection for his victim that she has for his false persona; thus he arranges to give back one of the large sums of money to her. And their online datng game is dangerous, because as they get more intimate, leading to the possibility of talking on the phone, for instance (texting is chosen as more romantic), there is more danger of giving away the game, and ending it.

Ultimately, you may, like me, start to fall in love with the fantasy and begin to wish that the Chinese youth and the middle-aged Chinese doctor - who are communicating in English because they're supposed not to sperak the same language - could actually meet up in person and still, by some miracle, somehow become a couple.

But the screenwriters are too clever for that, and have something more complicated in store. First of all they gradually "open up" the hitherto closet drama by keeping the relationship alive and changing while the doctor and the imaginary "French engineer" are (seemingly, anyway) getting closer. The ultimate tease is a plan to meet in Japan, in the town of Sapporo at a resort hotel. But there is much more teasing than that...

At nearly two hours Love Lies may seem a little long (and note: the English subtitles are faulty), but there is brilliance in this romantic comedy and it leaves us with many happy memories.

This is, as mentioned, director Ho Miu-ki's directorial debut. She started working as a film screenwriter in 2008, and has collaborated on screenplays for films including the 2010 La Comédie humaine, the 2014 Naked Ambition 2, and 2022's The Mermaid . She was nominated for Best Screenplay at the 36th Hong Kong Film Awards for the latter, which had a successful international release.

Love Lies 我談的那場戀愛 ("The Love I Had"), 116 mins., was screened for this review as part of the 2024 NYAFF (Jul. 12-20).

SCHEDULE:
Monday July 15, 8:45pm (Walter Reade Theater, Film at Lincoln Center)
Intro and Q&A with director Ho Miu-ki


"BOY" AT THE SCAMMER FACTORY


CHEUNG TIN-FU,SANDRA NG IN LOVE LIES