In 1995 Richard Linklater released Before Sunrise, a romantic film about two young people who meet abruptly in Europe and over the course of an evening fall in love as they walk and talk. The magic of the film is in its very simplicity, bare as it is of special effects or overly dramatic plotting. It's spurred a generation of imitators that all keep trying to capture the magic and the chemistry of that movie and unfortunately most can't survive the comparison to that wonderful film.
Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong is a movie made in the wake of Before Sunrise. Though the details of the people and the setting are different this is ultimately a walking and talking and falling in love movie. Ruby (Jamie Chung) is an American of Chinese descent who is planning to meet her friends for a drink but who can't locate the bar on her gps-less phone. Overhearing her dilemma, Josh (Bryan Greenberg), a white American expat, offers to walk her to her location. Over the course of their walk a connection sparks between them though when they arrive at their location Josh reveals something which sends Ruby into a rage and the two part on bad terms, only to be reunited completely by accident a year later when they meet on a ferry.
Movies like this always rest on the strength of the characters and the chemistry of the actors and sadly both are really lacking here. Ruby, and Josh in particular, are not that interesting. Also, despite that the fact that the actors were engaged at the time of filming, they bizarrely lack chemistry. Ruby seems (rightly) defensive and sharp tongued a lot of the time, which makes sense since Josh is a complete stranger and she's in a foreign country, but on the flip side it's confusing why Josh would keep making pains to try to get to know her when, at least initially, she isn't interesting.
Emily Ting shows promise as a director, but I can't help wishing she had chosen a more original plot that wouldn't suffer comparisons to a movie that has been so lauded and is held so dear for so many.
Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong is a movie made in the wake of Before Sunrise. Though the details of the people and the setting are different this is ultimately a walking and talking and falling in love movie. Ruby (Jamie Chung) is an American of Chinese descent who is planning to meet her friends for a drink but who can't locate the bar on her gps-less phone. Overhearing her dilemma, Josh (Bryan Greenberg), a white American expat, offers to walk her to her location. Over the course of their walk a connection sparks between them though when they arrive at their location Josh reveals something which sends Ruby into a rage and the two part on bad terms, only to be reunited completely by accident a year later when they meet on a ferry.
Movies like this always rest on the strength of the characters and the chemistry of the actors and sadly both are really lacking here. Ruby, and Josh in particular, are not that interesting. Also, despite that the fact that the actors were engaged at the time of filming, they bizarrely lack chemistry. Ruby seems (rightly) defensive and sharp tongued a lot of the time, which makes sense since Josh is a complete stranger and she's in a foreign country, but on the flip side it's confusing why Josh would keep making pains to try to get to know her when, at least initially, she isn't interesting.
Emily Ting shows promise as a director, but I can't help wishing she had chosen a more original plot that wouldn't suffer comparisons to a movie that has been so lauded and is held so dear for so many.