Soundless Wind Chime (2010)

Wing Kit Hung's debut feature is a fascinating watch. It's a mysterious, poetic and moving story; the line between reality/memory and imagination is so intriguingly blurred that you're left confused and overwhelmed at the same time, till the very end. And it's supposed to be like that. The movie is about moving on, and the heart-wrenching and difficult journey we have to tread to achieve that. It has a brilliant and captivating soundtrack. The acting is commendable. The scenes are shot and edited quite well. The movie seems an achingly real portrayal of love, loss and life. The climax, the scenes along with the music, is spellbinding. It's a not a perfect movie; the movie is flawed in so many ways. The plot and the storytelling style is too ambitious for a first-time Director. The three stories set in Hong Kong, Switzerland and Beijing are not developed clearly, and the relationships lack depth and detail; and they seem to spiral out of control without any evident reason. Though many of the things in the central relationship of Ricky and Pascal are subtle and unclear, their scenes are shot with great visual poetry. The story is intensely personal, and the autobiographical overtones only make sense to the director and not properly conveyed to the audience. The relevance and meaning of the opening and ending scenes, with the old couple, still elude me. Well, in spite of its drawbacks, I personally think it's a good film and a great attempt. The blurred lines and mystery just add to its beauty.

The meaning of this movie is very subjective. One may or may not like it. I seem to be the guy who likes movie that slowly progresses and leaves me to create my own conclusion. This movie is emotionally provoking . It made me quite depressed, to be honest, which I think is the aim of the movie. The story can be quite vague and unclear to the end but it will gradually soak into you and leave you to think and think. The scenes are breathtaking and magnificent. The bond between the two characters are very strong that you can almost feel it. I watched it about a year ago and I think it is worth to watch it once more. I suggest everybody should give this a go but as I mentioned, it's very subjective and the meaning of the movie depends on yourself.

Watch this movie only if you like watching grass sway back and forth in the wind. It's a total waste of time unless you like EXTREMELY slow movies where you make up your own storyline as the movie progress....practically no script except for a spattering of a word or two every now and then..... It's like a first year drama student trying extremely hard to produce and 'arty-farty' movie....without success..! The acting by the main stars are mediocre at best. Many visuals in the movie are totally irrelevant and only added to lengthen the pain in watching grass swaying back and forth. At the end of the movie, you will be left with a feeling of being robbed of more than an hour of your life and lots of un-answerred questions in the plot and the storyline of this movie. I would not recommend you to watch this movie unless you really really have nothing to do and like torturing yourself ..

Poetic and translucent. A pure, intense journey through emotions, amplified by the gorgeous visual and music score. Traveling back and forth through memories, dreams, recollections and fragments can be overwhelming, though it might be intentional as to make us feel how Ricky himself is feeling, lost and confused, lonely and desolate. A journey of a love that came from chance, small kindness, small crushes, that led to a whirlwind of feelings and breathtaking moments that got me sobbing so hard. Though to understand the full scope of this film, a second viewing is quite necessary, the first time of you watching this movie will take you on a ride through the poetic quality of a Chinese film, with the intensity of an indie movie, so out of norm, so random, so fragile that in the end, delivers a fascinating, heartfelt, confusing, demanding and touching film, that will leave you gasping for air.