Synopsis

Sam (Ekin Cheng) is an artist. one day he sees a young woman looking at one of his paintings. Smitten, he pursues her and gives her the painting. Heralding the start of a deep love affair between them.

Unfortunately Sam is sick with cancer, and he knows that they will not have a future together. As he get's sicker he writes in his diary about a scene which is constantly in his mind from the time when he lived with his family in Qingdao. He remembers that it was a place he used to play.

Soon Sam dies of his disease and Maan (Karena Lam) is left to mourn him. She is unable to come to terms with his death. She contemplates suicide. Finally, she decides to travel to Qingdao to stay with his family and also to search for the landscape he talked of so often during his last days. Maan is a hairdresser and makeup artist and so she is able to work for Sam's sister and help her in the salon.

In Qingdao Maan meets a local postman named Lit ( Liu Ye). Lit saves her when the gas stove goes out leaving her unconscious. Maan loses her sense of smell. Lit finds he likes her very much and agrees to help her search for the scene that her boyfriend talked about before his death. Unfortunately, Maan cannot let go of the past and everything constantly reminds her of Sam.

Lit and Maan walk all over Qingdao. Maan spends her time re-copying Sam's diary looking for clues to the scenery. She reads of a time capsule he buried at school and wants to dig it up to see it. Lit starts to get upset with her obsession with the past and urges her to let go of Sam. Maan is still consumed with the pain of his loss and is unable to continue to see Lit and eventually decides it is time to go home to Hong Kong.

As Maan prepares to leave Qingdao she hasn't realized that it has become spring. In the taxi she suddenly sees the pear blossom scene Sam had described. She buries Sam's ashes beneath one of the trees. Suddenly she hears a small child running and playing around the trees. She follows the child and finds Lit sitting under one of the trees. Maan realizes that by finding the scene and burying Sam she can finally let go of the past.

Review

Floating Landscapes is a love story written by Lai Suet and Lai Ho. It explores the pain of loss together with the difficulty of moving forward. The photography is outstanding. The memory scenes are all filmed in soft focus making them ethereal and also beautiful. The memories are finally able to turn sorrow and depression into hope and the promise of a brighter future.

Ekin plays the part of Sam with feeling and never allows the ultimate death of his character to feel tragic, just filled with a sense of regret. Ekin's entire role is through flashbacks in the memory of Maan. Thus the role takes place in very small vignettes. This is a challenging role and Ekin plays it perfectly, allowing the film to avoid the melodramatic.

Karina Lam plays the sad girl who cannot forget the loss of her terminally ill lover. Contemplating suicide and then finally tries to get as close to his life as possible. In the beautiful city of Qingdao she finds healing and hope. The movement through the city and the memories it triggers are sentimental and appealing. Karena plays the part very well and the movie is a wonderful vehicle for her. She looks equally good with Ekin and Liu Ye.

The winter backdrop moving into a spring of new beginnings is beautifully done. Unfortunately the end of the movie veer's away from the art film genre to have a more typical commercial ending. This detracts slightly from the film's appeal. However, the film was invited to participate in both the Venice and Berlin film festivals and was enthusiastically received.

The movie is distributed by Universal and is available on DVD wide screen and VCD. The DVD contains the music video by Karina Lam and also a Making Of feature. There are both English and Chinese subtitles.

Copyright © 2002

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