And it starts so promisingly; for those viewers who know actress Yu Feihong, hearing Eternal Beloved is her first time behind the camera would presumably leave them fairly sure what to expect. A sumptuous period piece, perhaps (The Joy Luck Club); maybe some kind of social commentary (Beijing Rocks), or a gentle story about family values (One Thousand Years of Good Prayers).
Adapted by Yu from a short story by Xu Lan (best known to Western audiences for a screenplay credit on Peter Chan's The Warlords) Eternal Beloved is a surprisingly ambitious debut - a broad melodrama, true, but a sweeping, tragic matinee romance with a multi-layered narrative and a healthy dose of action. While the basic premise is nothing especially new the production values, script and performances kick off strongly enough to suggest the film could be something special.
It starts with a young couple in roughly mid-century China purchasing their dream house, a secluded building in the countryside near where an ancient temple stood. Decades ago marauding bandit factions fought over the site - cue flashback of thundering horses, fire, steel and (relatively) graphic violence. Back in the present husband and wife couldn't be happier with the place, only he has yet to conclude his affairs back in the big city, leaving her (Yu) largely by herself until he can move in.
One night a stranger arrives in the garden (Duan Yihong, The Message, Desires of the Heart), and when the young wife serves him tea, he tells her a story which purports to be the truth about what happened fifty years before; about the bandit leader (Yao Lu, Confucius, One Foot off the Ground), his younger brother (also Duan Yihong) and the mysterious girl (also Yu Feihong) he kidnapped.
The first problem with the film, as often happens when a story depends on dual roles, is what twists it has are fairly obvious from the moment they're introduced. Yu handles the scripting competently enough but few viewers are going to be fooled - indeed she all but spells out most of the key themes from the moment the opening flashback explains why the bandits are fighting.
With little or no mystery involved the cast and crew have to carry the film. Along with veteran editor Angie Lam and DP Lai Yiu-Fai Yu turns out to have quite the eye, using the flashbacks to throw in any number of rolling landscape shots, shooting in a lush, saturated, almost plastic colour scheme that calls to mind any number of Shaw Brothers or Golden Harvest productions (rather than, say, Zhang Yimou's more painterly compositions).
Unfortunately the cast make less of an impression (Yao Lu excels in his small role but he's given far too little to do). Yu and Duan Yihong have obvious talent, but somehow - partly the threadbare premise, partly their approach to the roles - Eternal Beloved never really comes to life. The present-day storyline is largely an ongoing conversation and neither have the presence to sell this as more than just exposition.
The past looks good enough, and engages on a superficial level, but every plot point is telegraphed much too far in advance and the story is far too broadly laid out to convince on a human level ('why would anyone do that?'), yet not bold or grandiose enough to come across as myth-making (like the best of the recent blockbuster wuxia pian films).
Yu misses her last chance to elevate the material with the climax, which again is smartly filmed and presented but simply doesn't prove as emotive as it ought to be. The last ten minutes feel less like a gathering crescendo, more like desperation - two dying monologues, misplaced attempts to build up tension and the twist explained yet again all before the credits roll. What should be inevitable tragedy comes across as redundant and not a little patronising, with the epilogue back in the present instantly forgettable where it should have the audience in floods of tears.
Eternal Beloved is far from a bad film. It's more than watchable as popcorn entertainment and suggests Yu could do much better things, but the number of times it simply fails to clear the bar - the story, the performances, the pacing, the finale - ultimately prove hugely frustrating. Fans of the cast may well come away happy, but anyone else should lower their expectations accordingly.