DON'T GO BREAKING MY HEART Blu-ray Review

James Marsh, Editor, Asia; Hong Kong, China (@Marshy00)

June 23 2011, 5:11 AM

From Mega Star Video:

Yen (Gao Yuanyuan) is a single girl working in Hong Kong. One day, she notices a handsome hunk (Louis Koo) in the office building across the street trying to catch her attention with paper signs. A quirky romance ensues as she starts communicating with the stranger through paper signs every day. On the day she finally has the chance to meet him in person, she discovers that the so-called romance is only an embarrassing mix-up on her part. Her fate changes when she is approached by a beggar named Kevin (Daniel Wu). They start talking and soon become best friends. She learns of his origins and starts helping him rebuild his confidence and get back on track. However, when the previous stranger tries to win her back, Yin is caught in an unwanted love triangle.

Johnnie To's latest is a cut above many other recent Chinese romantic comedies and although it does essentially pitch a Hong Kong playboy banker against a struggling Mainland artsy type, it genuinely keeps its audience guessing right to the end. Essentially this is because Yen is not always the most sympathetic of heroines. She is cute and adorable, of course, but also materialistic and flaky, just as likely to fall in love with expensive gifts and high-end accessories than with old fashioned romance and kindness. Perhaps it runs a little longer than necessary but it's shot with a confidence and low-key flair that is too often lacking in its contemporaries. For my full review of the film at the time of its theatrical release, check out the link below.

Transfer:

Mega Star have produced an impressive-looking transfer that is crystal clear throughout and does justice to the beauty of Hong Kong and Suzhou that Johnnie To captures so effortlessly. There's very little grain in the image, even during the night sequences, but it doesn't look overly cleaned-up. Colours are strong and the image is sharp. There are two Cantonese audio tracks available, as well as a Mandarin dub. The English subtitles were pretty good, save for the occasional grammatical slip.

Extras:

2 Trailers
3 Making-of featurettes
7 Deleted/Extended scenes

Unfortunately, apart from the trailers, the extras aren't subtitled in English. Also, the Making-of featurettes are presented back-to-back as a single video clip. The same goes for the deleted scenes, making it difficult to maneuver from one to the next. For the most part they appear to be simply extra footage from pre-existing sequences, while the featurettes do include interviews with the three leads. What they are talking about, however, I couldn't tell you.

In Conclusion:

DON'T GO BREAKING MY HEART is certainly one of the better Chinese romantic comedies we have seen recently, and it looks pretty excellent on Mega Star's blu-ray. Suffice to say if you like your rom-coms slick and sappy, or are simply a Johnnie To completist, this is definitely a disc worth picking up.