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| Addicted to Love | |||
"As in his award-winning first films, Liu Hao uses non-professional actors to recount an unusual love affair with a poetic and humorous touch." – San Sebastian International Film Festival "A Chinese senior citizen rediscovers the power of the heart in the beautifully observed and played Addicted to Love. Shunning sentimentality in favor of the earthy, downbeat but delicate feel that defined Liu Hao’s previous pics, Love takes a simple premise and explores it with subtlety, sensitivity and quiet humor. Slow-moving but carefully composed, pic is barbed in its attacks on a younger generation which has consigned its elderly to the scrap heap. Widowed Old Pop (Niu Enpu) spots his first love, Li Ying (Jiang Meihua), and decides to pursue her once again, despite the passage of years. But both his family and hers are against the reunion, feeling it to be inappropriate; moreover, Li Ying has fallen victim to Alzheimer’s. Niu is rarely offscreen, his impassive features concealing a turbulent world of inner emotions as he rediscovers his younger self and sets about winning back the heart of a woman who isn’t sure who he actually is." – Jonathan Holland, Variety "“Getting old now, can’t remember much” sighs 80ish widower Mr Na (Niu En Pu), who in the twilight of his years maintains a regular daily routine in his bustling city-center neighborhood. His adult children pop in to see him now and then, but — obvious shades of Ozu’s enduringly influential Tokyo Story (1950) — they are preoccupied with their own financial and emotional issues. They start to take more notice in their dad, however, when he strikes up a friendship with old flame Mrs Li (Jieng Mei Hua), who is becoming increasingly infirm due to Alzheimer’s Disease, but who retains some fond memories of her decades-ago romance with Mr Na. (“Why didn’t you pick me, when we were young?” he plaintively asks.) Na and Li find themselves very tentatively drifting back together, a development which causes concern for both sets of families, who are worried that their loved one may suffer unneccessary emotional stress. Such fears are misplaced. The elderly “couple,” far from embarking on some kind of torrid affair, instead enjoy little outings to fast-food restaurants or simply sit alongside each other on benches watching the world go by. (“So many people in this city. Changing so fast.”) Niu and Jieng make for a most appealing duo, and there’s no mistaking the warm-heartedness with which Liu traces, via Li Bing Qiang’s digital-video cinematography, the slow-burning rebirth of their mutual affection." – Neil Young, Hollywood Reporter |
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| Lao na, China 2010 | |||
Director/Screenplay: Lui Hao Producers: Lui Hao, Yang Zheng-ping, Mu Jie With: Niu En-pu (Old Pop), Jiang Mei-hua (Li Ying) 112 mins, DV (16:9) In Mandarin, with English subtitles PG cert Waitati Film Society |
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