Worth: $14.00
FilmInk rates movies out of $20 — the score indicates the amount we believe a ticket to the movie to be worth
Cast:
Zhou Dongyu, Liu Haoran, QU Chuxiao
Intro:
… both beautiful and confounding in equal measure.
The Breaking Ice by Singaporean director Anthony Chen (Ilo Ilo) is a strange beast, both beautiful and confounding in equal measure.
Set in Yanji, which shares the border with North Korea, the film sees Shanghai financier Haofeng (Liu Haoran) visiting the snow-covered area for a wedding. Ignoring phone calls from a mental health clinic and staring wistfully at the ground from the roofs of tall buildings, it’s clear that everything is not okay in his world. The same could be said for tour guide Nan (Zhou Dongyu), who regularly rues the day an accident cost her a career as a professional ice skater. Noting a kindred spirit, Nana takes Haofeng under her wing and invites him out with her friend Xiao (QU Chuxiao), who not-so-secretly pines for her.
Seemingly influenced by the likes of Truffaut and the French New Wave, there’s a melancholy to The Breaking Ice that can be stifling. As the days pass, the trio develops a friendship fuelled by co-dependency, exploring Yanji together, staying up late drinking and lamenting lives they want to lead but never pursue. And yes, there is a love triangle of sorts that needs addressing, but there’s no beating of chests or other histrionics, just an acceptance, before the movie trundles along. There’s no need for more drama in their lives, just opportunities to experience life with someone else.
All three lead performances are impressive, and when the trio step out from their dingy flats, the snow-covered expanse that awaits them is stunning. These two things alone are enough to recommend seeing The Breaking Ice, but Chen’s lack of subtlety weighs down the film’s light touch. If it’s not Nana’s treatment as a blemished beauty by Haofeng, then it’s the three wandering around a literal maze of ice that they can’t escape.
Elsewhere, a subplot involving a fugitive on the run offers nothing to the film except for Xiao’s lamenting how a reward for his capture shows that his life is worth more than our protagonists. When they stumble upon an unconvincing bear who brings Nana to tears, there’s a niggling thought that Chen might just be having us on.
It’s frustrating because all the elements are more or less here for a stellar drama about needing and getting. Instead, The Breaking Ice feels like it keeps tripping over itself in an effort to ‘say something’ about life, youth and everything.
