| Language: Chinese Director: Baoping Cao Running time: 96 min Release year: 2008 |
| Cast: Xun Zhou, Chao Deng, Hanyu Zhang, Baoqiang Wang, Yanhui Wang, Ning Wang, Dahong Ni, Baoping Cao |
Movie Review:
It’s always a blast walking into a movie without knowing anything about the film and then finding yourself completely immersed in an unpredictable story. “The Equation of Love & Death” delivers this type of experience and props should go out to first time director Baoping Cao for making such a unique film. The film like its main protagonist, is a jittery mystery seeking out lost love, but entangled with shady criminal elements. |
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In “The Equation of Love & Death,” Li Mi (Xun Zhou) is a chain smoking cab driver who has been searching for her boyfriend for the past four years. Her boyfriend Fang Wen (Chao Deng) vanished out of the blue, but has continued to write her letters without revealing his whereabouts.
One day, Li Mi picks up two passengers who seem new to the city. When they are ready to pay for their cab fare, Li Mi is unable to change their large bills and asks the passengers to wait while she runs off to find change. The impatient passengers eventually walk out of the cab, snatching a magazine with pictures of her missing boyfriend as payment for their change, and go off to find a person with sunglasses. When they find the man sitting alongside an overpass bridge, the man plunges to his death in an apparent suicide.
Meanwhile, the man that fell off the bridge lands on another passing taxi cab. The person driving the cab is Ma Bing and his girlfriend FeiFei. When Ma Bing runs out to check on the fallen man he notices a magazine that has also fallen from the bridge above. The pictures in the magazine are of himself …
The movie, set around the the theme of random chance & its continuous use of chance meetings to the story together, may lead certain viewers to roll their eyes in disbelief, but for myself, these fortuitous events worked in the context of the film. If you buy into the story, the random chance encounters found in the movie seem nor more implausible than what you find in your local newspapers.
Xun Zhou is obviously a beautiful woman and in “The Equation of Love & Death” the filmmakers attempt to tone down her appearance to fit the character of a nervous cab driver. The use of little to no make-up and close-ups revealing her freckles seemed to work in inverse and made your natural beauty even more prominent. This wasn’t a bad thing, especially when taken with her on-the-money performance. Able to command a broad range of emotions (the best scene involved expressions after having her hand slammed in a car door), gave as good as any performance I have seen from a Chinese film this year. Xun Zhou is also flanked by top notch performers (Chao Deng & Hanyu Zhang), both of whom appeared in “Assembly.”
Having watched a slew of underwhelming films from China in the past year, it’s nice to come across an unexpected gem. “The Equation of Love & Death” keeps an air of mystery while revealing a chain of events that will have you thinking “time flies when you’re having fun” when its all said and done. “The Equation of Love & Death” also shows Xun Zhou as one of the best actresses working in Asia today (sign me up for membership in her fan club). Fans of Pen-Ek Ratanaruang’s “6ixtynin9″ (Ruang talok 69) should in particular check this out. |
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{ Recommended Chinese Movies } |
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Election (Hak se wui) |
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Director: Johnny To; Cast: Simon Yam, Tony Leung Ka Fai, Louis Koo, Nick Cheung, Ka Tung Lam, Siu-Fai Cheung, Suet Lam, Tian-lin Wang |
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The longest night in Shanghai |
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Director: Yibai Zhang; Cast: Wei Zhao, Masahiro Motoki, Li Feng, Dylan Kuo, Sam Lee, Naomi Nishida, Ben Niu, Xinyi Zhang, Yibai Zhang |
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Red Cliff (Chi Bi Xia) |
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Director: John Woo ; Cast: Tony Leung Chiu Wai, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Chen Chang, Wei Zhao, Shido Nakamura, Fengyi Zhang, Jun Hu |
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Curse of the golden flower (Man cheng jin dai huang jin jia) |
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Director: Yimou Zhang; Cast: Yun-Fat Chow, Li Gong, Jay Chou, Ye Liu, Dahong Ni, Junjie Qin |
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Exiled (Fong Juk) |
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Director: Johnny To; Cast: Anthony Wong Chau-Sang, Francis Ng, Simon Yam, Nick Cheung, Richie Ren, Roy Cheung |
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Ip Man |
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Director: Wilson Yip; Cast: Donnie Yen, Lynn Hung, Simon Yam, Siu-Wong Fan, Ka Tung Lam, Yu Xing, You-Nam Wong, Chen Zhi Hui |
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The equation of love and death (Li Mi de caixiang) |
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Director: Cao Baoping; Cast: Xun Zhou, Chao Deng, Hanyu Zhang, Baoqiang Wang, Yanhui Wang |
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