So Close
Hong Kong writer-director Amos Why proves COVID films need not be miserable in the low-key rom-com ‘Far Far Away’.
Far FAr Away
Director: Amos Why • Writer: Amos Why
Starring: Kaki Sham, Jennifer Yu, Rachel Leung, Cecilia So, Crystal Cheung, Hanna Chan, Yatho Wong, Will Or
Hong Kong • 1hr 36mins
Opens Hong Kong August 4 • IIB
Grade: B
As Hau, the slightly nerdy, wholly anonymous IT drone that serves as the central axle of writer-director-producer Amos Why’s (Wong Ho-yin) Far Far Away | 緣路山旮旯, Hong Kong “That guy!” Kaki Sham Ka-ki is perfectly cast, and no. It’s not becuase he’s “not handsome” (how does this guy listen to this all the time?), but rather because he’s average. He’s relatable in a way that rom-coms usually refuse to recognise, and so render themselves irritating, condescending nonsense. Yeah, Jennifer Lopez, Charlize Theron, Zac Efron, Constance Wu, Kate Beckinsale, Ryan Gosling, Ryan Reynolds, Angela Bassett and Leslie Bloody Cheung are the kind of people who get overlooked and tongue-tied. Won’t someone think of the beauties? The struggle is real! You could literally sit down beside Sham on the MTR and never know it was him. Which is fine in a film like Far Far Away, a FUBU (sorry to crib the brand) Hong Kong rom-com – for 2022. Shot with a tiny crew in under two weeks, Why speaks directly to Hongkongers while managing a little hand-wavey magic to, just for 90 minutes, make it seem like COVID isn’t a thing – the same thing that bumped the release from around Valentine’s Day.
Anchoring the action in a transit app that calculates the crazy distances (by Hong Kong standards) Hau travels to woo his army of girlfriends, offers route trips that avoid said MTR, and suggests places to eat among other weird, yet highly recognisable local messages, Why’s third feature (after Dot 2 Dot in 2014 and 2018’s Napping Kid) doubles as a celebration of Hong Kong’s less Lonely Planet cover corners while never missing a chance to get a jab in whenever possible. It’s practically Iranian. Imperfect and a bit too low-key for its own good sometimes, FFA never wears out its welcome, and Why got some serious advice from the women in his life because he wrote some uncharacteristically rounded females for the local scene. That, or he’s the SAR’s Almodóvar.
Yes, that is indeed Hong Kong
The comedy part, I suppose, comes from the fact that Hau is a late-twentysomething tech pro, not very suave and a perpetual fumbler around girls. Nonetheless, he has five (!), gorgeous, accomplished, confident, driven women chasing him. They are: colleague A Lee (Cecilia So Lai-shan, Why’s Napping Kid), who disappears from the office after a ride home gave Hau the idea there might be something there; Fleur (one time Hotcha member Crystal Cheung Man-ka, Why’s Dot 2 Dot), a borderline cosplayer who nonetheless knows damn well she wants children, but feels trapped by the expectation she should have a husband first; Lisa (Hanna Chan Hon-na, Limbo), the old school crush that’s dropped out (of the rat race, not school) to be come an artist in the New Territories; Mena (Rachel Leung Yung-ting, Raging Fire), the decisive, ambitious, non-nonsense career girl who’s straightforwardness will get her labelled the “bitch”; and Melanie (Jennifer Yu Heung-ying, Septet), another IT drone who steps into A Lee’s job when it turns out the latter went on medical leave. Giving Hau tips about juggling these lay-deez is his handsome pal Jude Law (Yatho Wong, and yes, that’s a gag) and Tai-tung (Will Or Wai-lam), kinda sorta happily married, and Fleur’s cousin. The women live in Tai O and Cheung Chau, Shau Tau Kok and up near Shenzhen Bay. It’s a lot of driving.
That’s the entirety of the story. Hau’s anecdotal romantic (and so, so chaste) misadventures span about a year, each woman ultimately leaving Hau a better dude than when she met him, and by the time he clicks with Melanie (that’s not a spoiler) he’s, basically, a grown-up. There’s no “other guy,” no mad dash to the airport (ha!), no second act “I’m going to dump you for both our sakes and lie about why” bullshit.
Don’t you dare call her a ‘bitch’
But by the same token there’s not much, erm, drama either. But that’s okay given Hau’s clumsy charm and everyday insecurities. You want to smack him sometimes. At others he makes you want to cringe. Sometimes he evokes a knowing nod. Really, Hau? You drove a girl home so now you’re an item? That’s not how it works. And why don’t you look Lisa in the eye when you talk? But those ordinary miscalculations and boneheaded behaviours make Hau more like all of us than not (in a heightened, movie kind of way). The film’s fleeting blandness is remedied considerably by the five actors fleshing out Why’s words and creating women we all know (it’s a shame Fleur is underwritten, given the hints the direction she could have gone). Why starts with archetypes – The Nice Girl, The Joker, The Doll, The Enigma and, of course, The Bitch – and works out from there, and lets DOP Leung Ming-kai find a visual language unique to each. In doing so he gives the city’s emerging actors something to work with, and they do. Yu and Chan are quickly carving out niches for themselves, but it’s Leung who steals the show. Her brashness and unapologetic faith in herself is refreshing in a place where “humble” is still the preferred MO for women. She’s honey badger: She don’t give a shit. Why’s biggest misstep comes in letting us see her in tears when she determines whatever she has with Hau isn’t working and it’s best to cut her losses. At the risk of gendering audience reactions, men and women are likely to see her decision in very different lights (she did nothing wrong, says this woman). But that’s also the essential, modest appeal of Far Far Away. Debating who Hau should be with at the end is almost as amusing as spotting the painfully Hong Kong references (from a Manson cameo to former Prince Edward resident A Lee suddenly coming down with cancer). Throw in a soundtrack loaded with Cantopop indies and you’ve got a recipe for one of the year’s most local, ADR-free films. — DEK