Beyond the Dream (2020) (DVD) (Hong Kong Version) DVD Region 3

The odds seemed to be against Beyond the Dream from the start – it's a heavy, emotionally intense story about mental illness; it's by a director who doesn't have a proven commercial track record; and it's led by two actors who have never had starring roles in a film before. Thanks to its nominations at the Hong Kong Film Awards, positive word-of-mouth from audiences over several months of preview screenings, and tabloid attention on the two stars after they admitted publicly that they started dating after the shoot, Beyond the Dream became the surprise hit of 2020 in Hong Kong.

And the attention is absolutely warranted. Beyond the Dream is a haunting star-crossed romance featuring two career-making lead performances. Directed with a delicate touch, it marks a major artistic leap for director and co-writer Kiwi Chow, best known for his Self-immolator segment in controversial award-winning omnibus Ten Years.

Beyond the Dream is the extension of Chow's award-winning 2006 short film Upstairs. The first 20 minutes is essentially a remake of that film, showing primary school teacher Lok (Terrance Lau) falling in love with Yan (Cecilia Choi), a pure girl-next-door that almost seems too ideal to be true. It turns out that she is, because Lok suffers from schizophrenia, and Yan is merely a figment of his imagination.

The story resets as it jumps forward in time. Yip Nam is a clinical psychologist in training, and her latest subject is none other than Lok. In a twist right out of Hitchcock's Vertigo, Yip Nam is also played by Choi, meaning that she's virtually a dead ringer for Yan. While Lok tries to come to grips with reality and fantasy, Yip Nam finds herself also opening up to him about her own psychological trauma. As their bond grows, a serious conflict of interest also emerges.

But Beyond the Dream is hardly an incisive, morally ambiguous look at the ethics of psychotherapy. Based on sufferers of mental illness whom Chow met during his research, the film is a romantic melodrama showing the struggles that the mentally ill face when they fall in love. The mental illness theme adds gravitas and weight to the story, but the film is really about what happens when people learn about their romantic partner's unsavory past, whatever it may be. Finding that universality in a topic that's rarely discussed in Hong Kong cinema is partly why the film has resonated with such a wide audience.

Despite a modest budget of HK$6.2 million (US$800,000), Chow and his cinematographer Danny Szeto (on his first feature film) tell their story with refined and sumptuous visual language. Every composition and camera movement feel rigidly planned and controlled. As if trapped between reality and fantasy like Lok, the film features dreamy visuals bathed in golden sheen. The film's use of picturesque locations in the satellite town of Tuen Mun even sparked a new wave of film tourism to the district. It's hard not to find yourself spellbound by the visuals of the film.

The biggest story of Beyond the Dream is the breakthrough of its two stars. Previously seen as the lead in TV mini-series My Very Short Marriage and as a schoolteacher in Taiwan horror hit Detention, Cecilia Choi excels in her challenging dual-role performance, creating a convincing contrast between Yan the Manic Pixie Dream Girl and Yip Nam, the pragmatist psychologist with a dark past. A long-time stage actor, Lau makes an incredibly successful transition to film with his emotionally draining performance as the mentally unstable Lok. The Golden Horse-winning script by Chow and co-writer Felix Tsang takes its time to sketch out its characters, giving juicy roles for these two new actors to work with. Seeing them rise to the challenge is the joy of watching this film.

by Kevin Ma