NYAFF REVIEW: ‘She Remembers, He Forgets’ explores power of flashbacks
She Remembers, He Forgets, the new movie from director Adam Wong, is a touching and sweet film about the enduring power of love, loss and forgiveness. Starring Miriam Yeung, Jan Lamb, Siu Hin Ng, Neo Yau and Cecilia So, the film has the guise of a typical romantic flick, but it effectively transcends genre conventions.
Yeung plays Gigi, a woman at a crossroads in her marriage to Shing-Wah (Lamb). They don’t seem to communicate with each other, and Gigi is suspicious of his business trips. Is he seeing someone on the side? Why is he always busy? He never seems to ask about her job as a travel agent or the prospects of the future.
While trying to figure out if Shing-Wah is having an affair, Gigi starts having flashbacks to the time in school when they first met. Another character enters the picture: Bok-Man, played by Siu Hin Ng. When the trio went to school, there was an obvious attraction between Gigi and Shing-Wah, and Gigi and Bok-Man. This put pressure on Shing-Wah and Bok-Man’s friendship and caused a subtle, but crucial competition between the two. The three friends were brought together over their love of aviation, and they would spend hours constructing and flying model airplanes. Most of Gigi’s memories of Bok-Man are sweet; the three friends got along and enjoyed their youth. It was only when the attraction began that things started to go awry.
Eventually the backstory of Bok-Man, a younger Shing-Wah (Yau) and younger Gigi (So) becomes more interesting than the present-day narrative. This is mostly because Hin Ng does a wonderful job of making Bok-Man a sympathetic and kind character. One wonders whatever happened to this character later in life. After Gigi and Shing-Wah became a permanent couple, did they lose touch with their friend, with the young man who lost out on the relationship competition?
Wong, who directed the movie and co-wrote the script with Saville Chan, uses the constant flashbacks to his advantage. There are seamless transitions between the present and past, and the story is always easy to follow and engaging. However, the strength of She Remembers, He Forgets is not only with the script and direction; it’s mostly a film that works because of its acting.
Yeung, who won an award at the New York Asian Film Festival recently, holds much of the emotion of the movie, bringing the audience along for this trip down memory lane. When she laughs, the audience laughs. When she cries, the audience is right there with her shedding some tears.
Hin Ng as Bok-Man is also a standout, and Lamb makes his role interesting and realistic.
There are some cliches that the movie can’t escape. For one, even though the payoff is better than expected, the setup is run of the mill. The marital problems between Shing-Wah and Gigi seem ripped from a romance novel, and their conversations can grow dull. There’s a lot of time spent on the Bok-Man character but not enough time on how Gigi and Shing-Wah fell in love, sustained that love and whether their relationship will continue.
She Remembers, He Forgets is a mostly effective romantic drama that transcends more genre conventions than it accepts.
By John Soltes / Publisher / John@HollywoodSoapbox.com
- She Remembers, He Forgets
- In Cantonese with English subtitles
- 2015
- Directed by Adam Wong
- Written by Wong and Saville Chan
- Starring Miriam Yeung, Jan Lamb, Neo Yau, Cecilia So and Siu Hin Ng
- Running time: 110 minutes
- Rating:
