MURMUR OF THE HEARTS (念念) (2015)

Genre: Drama
Director: Sylvia Chang
Cast:  Isabella Leong, Joseph Zhang, Lee Sinjie, Lawrence Ko
Runtime: 1 hr 59 mins
Rating: NC16 (Sexual Scene and Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Clover Films and Golden Village Pictures
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 23 April 2015

Synopsis: Nan and Mei are brothers and sisters growing up on the beautiful Green Island, off the shore of the port city of Taitung in Taiwan, and often to their mother’s fairytales of mermaids and angels. But soon their parents separated. Four-year-old Mei goes to Taipei with her mother, while seven-year-old Nan stays on Green Island with his father. Nan grows up to become a local tour guide on Green Island. Although he misses his mother and sister, he’s never had the courage to look for them. A few years after moving to Taipei, Mei’s mother dies in childbirth, and Mei moves to Ryukyu and grows up with her mother’s family. She returns to Taipei as a young woman, teaches art to young children and struggles to become an artist, painting to express her feelings and regrets. Mei’s boyfriend, Hsiang, is a boxer with his own ghosts to battle. The expectation and memories of his dead father pushes him to become a prize fighter, if only his eye problem does not get in the way. When Mei finds out that she is pregnant with Hsiang’s child, memories of an unhappy childhood return to haunt her. For Hsiang, a boxing match that gets out of control makes it painfully clear that he would never qualify for the Olympics. Whereas Nan, after confronting his father’s death and now living a seemingly solitary and quiet life, decides to go look for his sister. As the three young people struggle to come to terms with themselves, the “angels” in Nan and Mei’s mother’s fairytales come to give guidance and bring a ray of light into their lives. Magical encounters make them realize that there is always another side to any story, and that one day, they will find inner peace and joy in their hearts.

Movie Review:

The year was 1999 – this writer remembers the melancholic heartache after stepping out of the theatre. He had just watched Tempting Heart starring Takeshi Kaneshiro, Gigi Leung and Karen Mok. The romance film about lost opportunities is an intimate look at love and fate. The established filmmaker behind this is Sylvia Chang, herself an accomplished actress, writer, singer and producer.

This writer went on to hunt down her past works (1995’s Siao Yu and 1996’s Tonight Nobody Goes Home) and looked forward to her new films (2004’s 20 30 40 and 2008’s Run Papa Run). After a seven year hiatus, 61 year old Chang is ready to touch our hearts again with a story about three young people with a broken past, each struggling and trying to find compassion in their relationships.

We see familiar names in the cast list – Malaysian actress Lee Sinjie (Out of Inferno) is a loving mother to Macanese actress Isabella Leong (12 Golden Ducks) and Taiwanese actor Lawrence Ko (Au Revoir Taipei). Besides the estranged relationship between these three individuals, there’s Taiwanese actor Joseph Chang (Soul), whose romance with Leong is rocked by an unwanted pregnancy. Elsewhere, expect to see Wang Shih Hsien (from popular Taiwanese drama Night Market Life) as a boxing coach and Julian Chen (from 90s Taiwanese boy band Little Tigers) as an emotionally volatile father.

In this day and age where overacting, screaming at the top your voice and crying like it’s the end of the world is the most convenient way to tell your story, Chang opts for a quieter, and inevitably, much slower approach to tell this story about longing, forgiveness and ultimately, coming to terms with oneself. The 119 minute film takes its time to transit between the past and present, even bringing in elements of fantasy like mermaids and ocean creatures to stir your imagination a little.

The film is beautiful to look at, with every shot looking like a painting, thanks to cinematographer Leung Ming Kai’s gorgeous composition. Composer Chen Yang’s score is quietly affecting, while Chen Po Wen’s editing doesn’t rush through the story. Kudos also to the art direction team for giving the film a poetic touch, paying attention to the finest details.

The actors do their best to portray their characters – there is a sense of lost forlornness in Leong’s artist, while Ko is likeable as an earnest tour guide trying his best to figure out his life. Chang is handsomely rugged, while Lee effortlessly pulls off the role of a mother who left her children.

Although there are no big showdowns and climatic finales, there are a few scenes which will leave you aptly moved. Watch out for a sequence where Ko chats casually with Lee in his dream, and another one where Chang speaks to a mysterious man about his boxing dreams. These bittersweet moments will linger long after the credits roll, and have you thinking about how you have dealt with your own issues of love and longing. You just need to shut out the noises (both literal and figurative ones) around you and appreciate the quietness of this thoughtful film.  

Movie Rating:

(A quietly reflective film about how people in pain deal with loss and longing)

Review by John Li