The Knot (Hong Kong Version) VCD

The story begins in the present day with a young woman travelling around various Asian countries (played by Hong Kong starlet Isabella Leong) pestering her old painter aunt in New York on the phone for details regarding her apparently mysterious uncle. This awkward prompting leads into the main story, related in flashback and beginning in Taipei in the 1940s of Qiushui (actor Chen Kun, also in The Little Chinese Seamstress), a young English tutor who falls in love with Wang Biyun (Taiwanese popstrel Vivian Hsu), the daughter of a rich dentist whose son he is teaching. Sadly, the amorous couple are parted when Qiushui is forced to flee to the Mainland after the government starts hunting down suspected left wing activists. Moving around the country at an alarming pace as a military doctor, he finds solace in the company of perky nurse Wang Jindi (Li Bingbing, also in Wait 'Til you're Older), who slowly wears him down with her astounding decency and honesty. Meanwhile, poor Wang Biyun remains in Taipei, caring for her love's aging mother and hoping against hope that fate will reunite them, while she herself is pursued by the astoundingly decent and honest Zilu (Hong Kong boyband member Steven Cheung).

It's clear from the start that the viewer is in for a heavy dose of melodrama and clunky old-fashioned romantic values rather than anything gritty or challenging. Indeed, The Knot is populated entirely by characters that are quite happy to spend their lives pining away for other characters, whilst they in turn are pined after by a lesser sub-division of even more wretched and lovelorn souls. Since the film is without villains, and since none of the characters are willing to stoop to lies or deceit to try and further their romantic aims, the plot is oddly lacking in real drama, despite its themes of loss and tragedy.

Still, the narrative is engaging enough and there is plenty in the way of soap opera style action, which mainly takes the form of endless scenes of heartfelt goodbyes and shots of tear-soaked faces staring glumly into the rain, and so for viewers looking for an unashamedly sentimental sob story the film certainly delivers. For viewers of other persuasions, the over the top hysterics to which the cast are prone frequently makes for unintentional amusement and the film verges into the territory of being enjoyable trash. A great deal of the responsibility for this falls squarely on the shoulders of the two leads, with Chen Kun spending most of the film looking like an enthusiastic though not particularly intelligent puppy, and with Vivian Hsu pouting her way through a role which leads her from amusingly old looking schoolgirl through to pained spinster.

Where the film succeeds most is in its impressive visuals, with the high budget clearly having been put to good use in building intricate sets and on a surprisingly judicious and effective use of CGI. Thanks to this, it certainly looks gorgeous with some great sweeping camera work, and is lent a suitably epic air through its globetrotting plot which spans the globe as well as the decades. As a result, there is a definite blockbuster feel to the proceedings, with a professional sheen comparable to similar Hollywood efforts. Unfortunately, director Yin undermines all of this good work by insistently and inexplicably fading to black every minute or so, seemingly without any thought for continuity or cohesion. This annoying technical gaffe, which frequently interrupts conversations or dramatic scenes gives the impression that the camera is blinking or twitching, and at times makes the film feel like a television production with its advertising breaks cut out.

The film's other major flaw unquestionably comes in the form of the utterly needless modern day framing device, which serves only to slow things down and to distract from the central plot. Adding insult to injury is the fact that Isabella Leong is absolutely terrible in her mercifully brief role, turning in a non-performance which grates like nails on a blackboard. Of course, thanks to the miracles of DVD technology, viewers have the power to simply skip through these scenes, something which is definitely recommended, and which has the added benefit of also cutting down the rather long running time to a more manageable length.

Thankfully, neither of these is enough to sink the film, and The Knot remains entertaining, in a big budget shlock-buster fashion. Although unlikely to win any awards for depth or originality, it certainly achieves in its aim of mass appeal melodrama and should please fans of the form with its luscious production values and epic scope.

by James Mudge - BeyondHollywood.com