You might not realise it was a troubled production. Ma Liwen had originally planned to shoot romantic comedy Desires of the Heart around mainland superstar Ge You (If You Are The One, The Banquet) but then the movie ran into difficulties (allegedly over a conflict between director and star) and Ge left the cast. After a break to work on what became her third film - the black comedy thriller Lost and Found - she returned to rewrite Desires of the Heart as an ensemble piece, where Ge You's story was now just one of five.
The film deals with a quintet of Chinese women - the shy twenty-something virgin, the gold-digger (Li Xiaolu, One Night in Supermarket), the heiress going incognito, the single mother (Vivian Wu, The Soong Sisters) and the fifty-something divorcee (Yuen Qiu, Kung Fu Hustle). Each one fits an obvious archetype, and each has her own problem standing in the way of a successful relationship (age, inexperience, ulterior motives et al) but they're introduced deftly and succinctly enough this doesn't seem to be a problem.
The movie cuts back and forth between narratives almost at random, and the script never seems to favour one over another. It's a fairly light, breezy piece of work - all five women hit speed bumps and there's pain and heartache of a sort, but this is very obviously a world of sight gags and physical comedy as much as wry observation, all scored to a perky soundtrack.
After the break in production Desires of the Heart ended up with two cinematographers - Wu Di shot the original plotline (Vivian Wu's single mother and how she deals with persistent overtures from Ge You's suave businessman), William Chan worked on the other stories. The new footage is considerably glossier and more upmarket than any of Ma Liwen's previous films and her trademark slow, almost awkward camera moves seem a little jarring off and on.
Still, for the most part the director and her crew work well together across every plot thread, throwing in some eyecatching backdrops here and there and giving the one-to-one set-piece conversations the same controlled pacing and wonderfully human touch as You and Me, despite the lighter subject matter.
Predictably, some of the plot threads are more effective than others. Mei Ting is more than sympathetic as the virginal Zhang Ying, but her relationship with an old schoolfriend (Geng Ye, Beijing Rocks) veers towards the stuff of disposable soap opera. Lin Cong the heiress (Song Jia, Curiosity Killed the Cat) and her courting a chef who's blissfully ignorant of her family background is a sweet enough diversion, but not much more.
Surprisingly the most obvious storylines turn out to be the most rewarding - Li Xiaolu is excellent as the gold-digging Xiaomei, playing her with just enough self-awareness and reserve her character arc becomes genuinely winning (apart from one of the most hilariously inappropriate choices of background music in the last five years).
And Yuen Qiu comes close to stealing the film. Though her whirlwind romance with a much younger man (Guo Tao, Out of Control, Crazy Stone) seems to echo the Vivian Wu/Ge You narrative a little too closely, the landlady from Pigsty Alley is almost heartbreakingly vulnerable here, never stooping to the easy laugh or the outright cliché.
The ending peters out a little - again, two stories wrap up in almost the same way, and the other three trail off perhaps too suddenly. It is fairly obvious Ma is more concerned with personal growth than happy, fairytale resolutions, however, and by and large merely spending time with these women feels satisfying enough.
Overall Desires of the Heart is further proof of Ma Liwen's talent, rising above any production difficulties with style to spare. An engaging cast with some fantastic performances make up for any shortcomings left in the script and pacing (and for all it still has problems Desires... makes for far more appealing viewing than the abysmal Sophie's Revenge). Largely ignored outside the mainland, for anyone after a warm, compassionate, genuinely funny romantic comedy it comes highly recommended.