I’m
a sucker for anything with Takeshi Kaneshiro in it, and what girl doesn’t love
a film with some romance? On these two thoughts alone I told myself “why not?”
and gave Lavender (2000) a try. It wasn’t one of those films that had been
recommended to me by a friend or shared by someone online. Rather, I came
across it browsing some online film database trying to curb my movie addiction
by adding onto my (already long) list of movies I plan to watch. Honestly, I have been planning to watch this
movie for months. Apart from looking at the oh-so-charming Takeshi Kaneshiro
for around two hours, there was nothing special about the pilot that made me
feel I had to watch it immediately.
The
plot basically goes like this. Athena Chen (Kelly Chan) is an aroma therapy
teacher who lives a loveless life grieving her deceased boyfriend, Andrew, who
she lost in an accident while he was serving in the military. One night an
angel (Takeshi Kaneshiro) falls from the sky unable to fly from an injured wing.
Athena takes him in and cares for his broken wing. He shacks up with Athena,
unable to return to heaven until the day that the ‘gates’ are open. While on
earth Angel (what the angel comes to call himself) searches for love, saying
quote “I don’t need to eat, I survive off love” (a moment where I laughed).
Through his search for love he becomes friends with Athena’s neighbor Chow Chow,
who was also childhood friends with Andrew. Chow Chow tells Angel about
Athena’s tragic past and it becomes Angel’s mission to make her love once
again.
 |
| Takeshi Kaneshiro as Angel |
Lavendar is cute enough. Rylie Yip both
wrote and directed the film, but I am not too familiar with his other works. It
had some really good moments, but I’ll admit the movie didn’t change my life or
anything. Kaneshiro is very charming in
this, but of course (knowing his other works) I wouldn’t expect anything less. He
really carries the film, and it is a big reason why this film doesn’t fall
completely flat for me. I found Kelly Chan particularly unremarkable as Athena,
and I never really connected with Athena or this deep sense of loss she felt. Every
day she buys an orange balloon and sends it off into the sky with the hopes
that it will arrive to her dead lover. This is the opening scene of the film, Athena
walking through Hong Kong with a bright orange balloon in her hands. The
balloon marks her, and separates her from the rest of society. Most of the
scenes are blue and green in tone, which made that bright orange balloon really
stand out. I never really come to understand the significant of an orange
balloon in Athena’s past relationship with Andrew, but aesthetically it does
invoke this idea of her loneliness and grievance.
 |
| Kelly Chan as Athena Chen |
Chow
Chow is the stereotypical flamboyantly gay man. He wears this afro wig, and
loves the men that love Athena. Chow Chow was a little much, but there is an
endearing relationship between him and Angel. I’m not sure how the queer
community is accepted in the Hong Kong community (especially in 2000), but
Angel vocalizes the message that there is nothing wrong or immoral with Chow
Chow’s queer identity. I think what is most endearing about their relationship
is that Chow Chow and Angel become good friends but Angel’s masculinity or
heterosexuality is never put into question by the relationship. Can I also say
that I laughed hysterically when Angel was a stripper for a night and Chow Chow
was there proudly cheering him on?
The
ending tried to throw the viewer’s for a loop, but I saw it coming. The ending
was cute enough and tied up everything in this very neat bow. Everyone got what
they wanted at the end (Angel, Athena, the audience). Everyone except Chow Chow
if you really think about it.
If
you’re looking for a simple enough, cute, romance to pass the time then you
should give it a watch (I believe it’s on YouTube with eng subs). And if you’re
a Takeshi Kaneshiro fan, it will just give you another reason to fall in love
with him.