| John Chan returns to directing after no one's really missed him but fans of writing would know he penned such films as Eighteen Springs, Fong Sai Yuk and Mother Of A Different Kind. Produced by Johnnie To and shot with a Mainland Chinese talent pool, Memory Of The Youth is simple in its approach. Chan has a few quirky visuals to go along with the growing love between Lin (Ma Xiao Qian) and Nuo (Zhai Tian Lin) but his greatest tool here is sincerity. With it you get far but as simple-minded the story is, with the elements of nostalgia and a once in a lifetime experienced love, Chan includes quite a few brave character choices. Lin is depicted, whether she knows it or not, as a small bird dying to break free into individuality as that's the only life choice now. It generates elements found in Derek Yee's 2 Young but all these choices would verge on dangerous for any character. However director Chan has decided to let naive characters have that as a building block for their particular fate and this rather uncompromising approach makes Memory of The Youth stand out. There's no cultural boundaries, that's why Chan deserves a larger audience and Johnnie To should lend his producing talents to more projects like this.
ALTHOUGH, one can't help to think John Chan needs to polish some of his storytelling skills as one particular plotpoint concerning Lin running away from home is hard to swallow in the way the adults don't seem to be in a rush to get her back. No prior developments suggests a logic to this and Chan's directing of the younger supporting players is not convincing at times. |
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