TRIUMPH IN THE SKIES (冲上云霄) (2015)

Genre: Romance/Drama
Director: Wilson Yip, Matt Chow
Cast: Louis Koo, Sammi Cheng, Francis Ng, Julian Cheung, Charmaine Sheh, Amber Kuo Tsai Chieh, Oceane Zhu, Liu Jun Xiao, Kenneth Ma, Kong May Yee Elena, Remotigue Joventino Couto, Mark Ma, Liao Jingsheng
RunTime: 1 hr 40 mins
Rating: PG13 (Some Coarse Language)
Released By: Clover Films and GVP
Official Website: 

Opening Day: 19 February 2015

Synopsis: Young pilot Branson (Louis KOO) recently takes over Skylette, his father’s aviation empire, only to realize his old flames Cassie (Charmaine SHEH) is a flight attendant there. Several years ago, he was forced to break up with her and move to New York to take care of his father's business. To this day, the two continue to harbor feelings for each other but decide to keep them bottled up.

In an effort to rebrand the airline, Branson invites rock idol TM to star in an upcoming commercial and appoints Sam (Fransic NG) as her flying consultant. Incongruent in both tastes and experience, this odd couple gets off on the wrong foot. As the shoot progresses, however, they slowly discover each other's merits, developing a strong mutual attraction.

Jayden (Julien CHEUNG) has left Skylette Airline to become a pilot for private jets. He meets the young and vivacious Kika (KUO Tsai Chieh) during a flight and assumes her to be wayward and shallow. But they turn out to have a lot in common and start falling madly in love. At the height of their romance, Jayden realizes almost too late the secret behind her recalcitrance…

Each of the three relationships comes with its own setbacks. As long as one can accept the imperfection of things, finding happiness—however fleetingly—is a blessing in itself.

Movie Review:

‘Triumph in the Skies’ is one of the prettiest Hong Kong movies you’ll see, but sadly that’s about the only good thing there is to say about it. Based upon the hit TVB series which debuted in 2003 and that took a decade to spawn an equally successful sequel, this big-screen spinoff isn’t a continuation from where the drama left off; rather, it is a tale of three romances, two of which happen to revolve around the series’ leading male characters – the strait-laced and serious-minded senior pilot Captain Samuel ‘Sam’ Tong (Francis Ng) and the caddish and carefree Captain ‘Jayden’ Cool (Julian Cheung). Bearing no relation to the series except for character associations does give directors Wilson Yip and Matt Chow much leeway to take the movie in several different directions, so it is particularly disappointing to realise that they have regarded this as no more than a Valentine’s Day cash-grab.

Whereas the friction between Sam and Captain Cool was one of the key plot elements of the series which immediately preceded this movie, there is nothing of that sort here. Indeed, it is perhaps shocking for fans to note that Ng and Cheung do not share any screen time with each other at all, short of the final reel which sees them and new addition Louis Koo chasing each other around in an airport terminal as if they were all best buds. Instead, as the signature Eason Chan tune ‘Cantabile Years’ opens the movie, we learn that Captain Cool has left Skylette to become a pilot for his friend Thomas’ private jet, which is really just a mile-high clubbing pad for his brother and his posse. It is on his maiden flight that he meets the young and vivacious Kika (Amber Kuo), with whom he develops an immediate emotional connection to.

Sam, on the other hand, remains with Skylette, and has risen among the ranks to become their top Chinese pilot. In the montage of scenes played to the theme song, the Sam we knew from the TV series impresses upon his co-pilot, Roy (Kenneth Ma), the importance of arriving early and preparing for the responsibility of over five hundred people whose lives are in their hands; yet, after he meets the brash, impetuous but endearingly vulnerable rock-and-roll star TM (Sammi Cheng) at a shoot for Skylette’s new aviation commercial, Sam falls head over heels and eventually ignores his very own advice, so much so that he is given as taste of his own advice much later into the movie by none other than Roy himself.

The third and final pair to complete this triptych is pilot-turned-businessman Branson Cheung (Louis Koo), who takes over the helm of Skylette Airlines from his father and is probably the first CEO of a commercial airline to actually be one of its pilots as well. It is Branson who approaches Sam to serve as aviation consultant on the advertisement the company is shooting where the latter meets TM, but Branson’s story is that he had reluctantly broken up with Cassie (Charmaine Sheh) several years ago when his father asks that he move to New York to look after the family business. Cassie so happens to be a stewardess with Skylette now, and while Sam and Captain Cool get to chase after new flames, Branson is busy trying to rekindle an old one, i.e. to convince Cassie to set aside her doubts of him leaving some other day yet again at his father’s beckon and give their love a second chance.

If there seems to be very little about their duties as captains of the skies, that’s because Chow the screenwriter has opted for a bare-bones plot – if there was one to begin with – that doesn’t go much further than their respective romances. Indeed, their occupation seems quite the afterthought here, treated as no more than an excuse to fly them to picturesque locations in London, in particular the city of Brighton. Any drama whatsoever happens only with respect to their romantic partners, and not because of anything that happens in the skies, which come to think of it, really makes the title of the film quite the misnomer. That won’t be so much of a downer if their love stories were more compelling; alas, even in that respect, we are left wanting.

Ng and Cheng have great chemistry - together, but their opposites attract routine doesn’t go much further beyond learning some dance moves and hooking up while on their individual sojourns in London. Cheung and Kuo get slightly more introspection into why they are drawn to each other, but are eventually undone by a tragic turn of events that add little but cliché to their fatalistic coupling. And perhaps the most pointless of them all is Koo and Sheh, who take turns breaking up with each other and getting back together – that is, before (finally!) realising both of them are convinced how much they want each other despite the time-gap and deciding to meet under the same ferris wheel where they had last agreed to split.

Chow’s co-director Wilson Yip seems keenly aware of how little depth there is to the characters or their predicaments, so he makes sure that every single shot in the film is postcard-pretty. He succeeds tremendously, we’ll give him that, and together with an incessant soft-rock soundtrack, creates a dreamy atmosphere that is truly beguiling, at least at the start. Yet there is only so much the beautiful visuals do to distract from the film’s fundamental shallowness, and not even Koo and Sheh making out topless in the pool or chasing each other with shaving cream is enough eye candy to compensate for the frivolity of their romantic in-and-outs.

If you’re looking for no more than a romantic flight of fancy, then this movie version of ‘Triumph in the Skies’ will do just the trick. But everyone looking for anything more will probably come off bored and disappointed, in particular fans of the drama who are used to more substantial plotlines than that which their characters get here. Yes, this big-screen sojourn doesn’t quite take off at all; instead, it seems trapped in its own mush for the entire duration, while straining at every turn to look gorgeous doing just that.

Movie Rating:

(Gorgeous to look at but disappointingly shallow, this big-screen version of the TVB series is no more than a postcard pretty triptych of love stories set against picturesque locations and soft-rock tunes)

Review by Gabriel Chong