Leaving Me, Loving You tells the story of Dr. Chow and Yuet, a couple living in Shanghai who break-up early in the film. After instigating the break-up, Dr. Chow begins to doubt his decisions once his job reconnects him to Yuet—but now she has no intention of restarting the relationship.
The plot is exceedingly simple. Yuet is a party planner and Dr. Chow is a doctor. After their break-up, they find themselves working for the same client by coincidence. The viewer expects a script consisting of their frequent meetings and an escalating conflict through this plot device as they struggle to rework their relationship. Well it happens, but not often enough and with a complete lack of substance or depth. Every meeting seems to copy and paste the couple’s dialogue from their last scene together with the same results and little emotion. Leon Lai tilts his head downwards, puppy dog style, and delivers the usual “Please take me back, let’s start again” speech and the reticent Faye Wong refuses him.
Two otherwise great actors suffer horribly from the poor scriptwriting and one-note characters—they barely get the chance to shine. Faye Wong has one good moment when she tries to beat-up Lai because it seems to be about the only scene with some actual energy and fun.
The rest of the film consists of a couple subplots and supporting characters that provide some entertainment—and there are, admittedly, many beautiful shots of Shanghai with lush colors, engaging camera movement, ridiculous locations and production design. The film hits a very precise mood and it’s a shame that the script falls so short.
Wilson Yip attempts something a bit unique in his premise by turning the entire film into a typical romantic comedy third act, where the broken up couple must dramatically reconcile. But he has nothing to add to it. The writing excruciatingly stretches this act to fill the entire film—resorting to clichés and repetitive filler. Viewers who hate artificially constructed, melodramatic third acts will suffer three times as much.
In the end, some pretty faces in some pretty shots are all that’s left. Leaving Me, Loving You comes recommended only for fans of the actors. Big, big fans.
Reviewed by Tarun
