Perhaps Love
Encyclopedia
Perhaps Love is a 2005 film directed by Peter Chan
Peter Chan
Peter Chan Ho-sun , is a film director and producer.-Life and career:Chan was born in Bangkok to Chinese parents. He spent his teens in and studied in Hong Kong and United States, and he attended film school at UCLA. He returned to Hong Kong in 1983 for a summer internship in the film industry....

, written by Oi Wah Lam and Raymond To
Raymond To
Raymond To Kwok Wai is a dramatist, screenwriter and film director from Hong Kong.-Filmography as director:* Master Q: Incredible Pet Detective * Miss Du Shi Niang * May & August * Forever and Ever...

, and choreographed by Farah Khan
Farah Khan
Farah Khan is an Indian film director and choreographer. She is best known for her choreographical work in numerous Bollywood films. Khan has choreographed dance routines for more than a hundred songs in over 80 Hindi films. Khan has since become a noted Hindi film director as well...

. It is funded by Astro Shaw
Astro Shaw
Astro Shaw Sdn Bhd is an Malaysian film production company, and is one of the leading producers, along with Tayangan Unggul....

 and TVB
Television Broadcasts Limited
Television Broadcasts Limited, commonly known as TVB, is the second over-the-air commercial television station in Hong Kong. It commenced broadcasting on 19 November 1967...

, and is distributed by Celestial Pictures
Celestial Pictures
Celestial Pictures is a diversified entertainment company focusing on Asian-language film and television content including production, aggregation, distribution and the operation of TV channels....

.

Cast

  • Takeshi Kaneshiro
    Takeshi Kaneshiro
    Takeshi Kaneshiro , born October 11, 1973, is a Taiwan-born Japanese actor and singer.-Name:...

     as Lin Jiandong / Zhang Yang
  • Zhou Xun
    Zhou Xun
    Zhou Xun is a Chinese actress and singer. She is regarded as one of the "Four Young Dan actresses" in China in the early 2000s, along with Zhang Ziyi, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei.-Early life:...

     (周迅) as Sun Na / Xiaoyu
  • Jacky Cheung
    Jacky Cheung
    Jacky Cheung is a Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor. The Chinese language media refers to him, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings , with more than 60 million records sold as of 2000....

     as Nie Wen / The Circus master
  • Ji Jin Hee as Monty
  • Sandra Ng Kwan Yu
    Sandra Ng
    Sandra Ng Kwan-yu is a Hong Kong film and television actress.-Biography:The daughter of Ng Kam-chuen, Ng was born in Hong Kong, where she attended St. Stephen's Girls' College. Encouraged by her parents, she began her entertainment career at the age of 16. She is most known through her comic...

     as Lin's manager
  • Eric Tsang
    Eric Tsang
    Eric Tsang Chi-wai , MH is a prolific Hong Kong actor, film director, film producer and television host best known for hosting the Super Trio series on TVB over the course of 10 years.-Biography:Due to his popularity, he is often the MC in events organized by TVB, and is nicknamed "the Prize Master"...

     as Nie's producer

Plot

A Mainland
Mainland China
Mainland China, the Chinese mainland or simply the mainland, is a geopolitical term that refers to the area under the jurisdiction of the People's Republic of China . According to the Taipei-based Mainland Affairs Council, the term excludes the PRC Special Administrative Regions of Hong Kong and...

 director Nie Wen (Jacky Cheung
Jacky Cheung
Jacky Cheung is a Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor. The Chinese language media refers to him, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings , with more than 60 million records sold as of 2000....

) decides to make a film musical starring his Mainland girlfriend Sun Na (Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun is a Chinese actress and singer. She is regarded as one of the "Four Young Dan actresses" in China in the early 2000s, along with Zhang Ziyi, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei.-Early life:...

) and Hong Kong actor Lin Jian-dong (Takeshi Kaneshiro
Takeshi Kaneshiro
Takeshi Kaneshiro , born October 11, 1973, is a Taiwan-born Japanese actor and singer.-Name:...

). Unknown to him, Sun has met Lin before ten years ago when she was a cabaret
Cabaret
Cabaret is a form, or place, of entertainment featuring comedy, song, dance, and theatre, distinguished mainly by the performance venue: a restaurant or nightclub with a stage for performances and the audience sitting at tables watching the performance, as introduced by a master of ceremonies or...

 singer in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

. The two had a relationship together then, when Lin was a film student. Ten years later, now a huge movie star, Sun refuses to acknowledge they have met before.

Nie plans his musical, which includes a plot where a girl loses her memory and comes to live with a circus
Circus
A circus is commonly a travelling company of performers that may include clowns, acrobats, trained animals, trapeze acts, musicians, hoopers, tightrope walkers, jugglers, unicyclists and other stunt-oriented artists...

 troupe. Sun plays the amnesiac girl and Lin her former boyfriend who tries to revive her memories. As the shooting of the movie starts, real life and real life overlap. Lin tries desperately to win back Sun's lost love, while Nie discovers their past romance. Nie himself plays the role of the obsessive circus owner in the musical, who is involved in a love triangle
Love triangle
A love triangle is usually a romantic relationship involving three people. While it can refer to two people independently romantically linked with a third, it usually implies that each of the three people has some kind of relationship to the other two...

. Just like in real life, he has Lin as his rival.

Ji Jin-Hee plays Monty, a fantasy
Fantasy
Fantasy is a genre of fiction that commonly uses magic and other supernatural phenomena as a primary element of plot, theme, or setting. Many works within the genre take place in imaginary worlds where magic is common...

 character who has a number of different roles in the movie (such as a noodle shop owner and a reporter).

Business

The film reportedly cost US$10 million, but it earned US$2.2 million on its opening weekend.

Production

Perhaps Love was filmed in Beijing
Beijing
Beijing , also known as Peking , is the capital of the People's Republic of China and one of the most populous cities in the world, with a population of 19,612,368 as of 2010. The city is the country's political, cultural, and educational center, and home to the headquarters for most of China's...

 and Shanghai
Shanghai
Shanghai is the largest city by population in China and the largest city proper in the world. It is one of the four province-level municipalities in the People's Republic of China, with a total population of over 23 million as of 2010...

. The film is the first musical
Musical film
The musical film is a film genre in which songs sung by the characters are interwoven into the narrative, sometimes accompanied by dancing. The songs usually advance the plot or develop the film's characters, though in some cases they serve merely as breaks in the storyline, often as elaborate...

 to be produced in mainland China
China
Chinese civilization may refer to:* China for more general discussion of the country.* Chinese culture* Greater China, the transnational community of ethnic Chinese.* History of China* Sinosphere, the area historically affected by Chinese culture...

 in over forty years.

Awards

The film's female lead Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun is a Chinese actress and singer. She is regarded as one of the "Four Young Dan actresses" in China in the early 2000s, along with Zhang Ziyi, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei.-Early life:...

 won the 12th Hong Kong Film Critics Society Award
Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards
The Hong Kong Film Critics Society Awards are the annual awards given by the Hong Kong Film Critics Society in Hong Kong, China since 1995. The awards are determined by votes cast in three rounds after a substantial discussion session between the members of the society...

 in the Best Actress category and the film was named as the Recommended Film.

The film was also nominated for eleven 25th Hong Kong Film Awards
25th Hong Kong Film Awards
Ceremony for the 25th Hong Kong Film Awards was held on 8 April 2006 in the Hong Kong Coliseum and hosted by Eric Tsang, Teresa Mo and Chapman To...

. It won six awards: for Best Actress (Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun
Zhou Xun is a Chinese actress and singer. She is regarded as one of the "Four Young Dan actresses" in China in the early 2000s, along with Zhang Ziyi, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei.-Early life:...

), Best Art Direction (Chung Man Yee and Pater Wong), Best Cinematography (Peter Pau
Peter Pau
Peter Pau Tak-Hei , born 1951 in Hong Kong, is a Hong Kong-based cinematographer, best known to western audiences as the cinematographer in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which he won the Best Cinematographer Oscar in 2000....

 and Christopher Doyle
Christopher Doyle
Christopher Doyle is a cinematographer. He has won the AFI Award for cinematography, the Cannes Technical Grand Prize, Golden Osella, the Golden Horse awards , and Hong Kong Film Award . Doyle is an affiliate of the Hong Kong Society of Cinematographers.-Biography:Doyle was born in Sydney,...

), Best Costume & Make Up Design (Chung Man Yee and Dora Ng
Dora Ng
Dora Ng Lei-Lo is a Hong Kong film costume and make up designer.-Filmography:* An Empress and the Warriors * CJ7 * The Secret of the Magic Gourd * The Matrimony * Happy Birthday...

), Best Original Film Score (Peter Kam
Peter Kam
Peter Kam Pui-Tat is a music composer for Hong Kong films including The Warlords and Bodyguards and Assassins.Peter is a four-time winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards.-External links:...

 and Leon Ko
Leon Ko
Leon Ko Sai Tseung is a composer for musical theatre and films. He won a Richard Rodgers Development Award, a Golden Horse Award and numerous musical awards. His mother, Lucilla You Min , was a famous actress in post-war Hong Kong Mandarin cinema and won the 1st Annual Golden Horse Awards and two...

), and Best Original Film Song, "Perhaps Love" (this award was shared between composer Peter Kam, lyricist Him Yiu, and Jacky Cheung
Jacky Cheung
Jacky Cheung is a Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor. The Chinese language media refers to him, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings , with more than 60 million records sold as of 2000....

, who performed the song in the film).

The film won four awards at the 43rd Golden Horse Awards, which are: Best Actress (for Zhou Xun), Best Director (for Peter Chan), Best Cinematography (for Peter Pau
Peter Pau
Peter Pau Tak-Hei , born 1951 in Hong Kong, is a Hong Kong-based cinematographer, best known to western audiences as the cinematographer in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which he won the Best Cinematographer Oscar in 2000....

) and Best Original Film Song (for Leon Ko
Leon Ko
Leon Ko Sai Tseung is a composer for musical theatre and films. He won a Richard Rodgers Development Award, a Golden Horse Award and numerous musical awards. His mother, Lucilla You Min , was a famous actress in post-war Hong Kong Mandarin cinema and won the 1st Annual Golden Horse Awards and two...

)

Though Christopher Doyle worked on the cinematography for the film along with Oscar
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

-winner Peter Pau, it's unclear whether he actually shared the Hong Kong Film Award with Peter Pau or not.

The film was submitted by Hong Kong
Hong Kong
Hong Kong is one of two Special Administrative Regions of the People's Republic of China , the other being Macau. A city-state situated on China's south coast and enclosed by the Pearl River Delta and South China Sea, it is renowned for its expansive skyline and deep natural harbour...

 as its official entry for the 2006 Academy Awards
Academy Awards
An Academy Award, also known as an Oscar, is an accolade bestowed by the American Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences to recognize excellence of professionals in the film industry, including directors, actors, and writers...

. It closed the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...

 in 2005.

25th Hong Kong Film Awards

  • Won: Best Actress (Zhou Xun
    Zhou Xun
    Zhou Xun is a Chinese actress and singer. She is regarded as one of the "Four Young Dan actresses" in China in the early 2000s, along with Zhang Ziyi, Xu Jinglei and Zhao Wei.-Early life:...

    )
  • Won: Best Art Direction (Chung Man Yee, Pater Wong)
  • Won: Best Cinematography (Peter Pau
    Peter Pau
    Peter Pau Tak-Hei , born 1951 in Hong Kong, is a Hong Kong-based cinematographer, best known to western audiences as the cinematographer in Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon, for which he won the Best Cinematographer Oscar in 2000....

    )
  • Won: Best Costume & Makeup Design (Chung Man Yee, Dora Ng
    Dora Ng
    Dora Ng Lei-Lo is a Hong Kong film costume and make up designer.-Filmography:* An Empress and the Warriors * CJ7 * The Secret of the Magic Gourd * The Matrimony * Happy Birthday...

    )
  • Won: Best Original Film Score (Peter Kam
    Peter Kam
    Peter Kam Pui-Tat is a music composer for Hong Kong films including The Warlords and Bodyguards and Assassins.Peter is a four-time winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards.-External links:...

    , Leon Ko
    Leon Ko
    Leon Ko Sai Tseung is a composer for musical theatre and films. He won a Richard Rodgers Development Award, a Golden Horse Award and numerous musical awards. His mother, Lucilla You Min , was a famous actress in post-war Hong Kong Mandarin cinema and won the 1st Annual Golden Horse Awards and two...

    )
  • Won: Best Original Film Song (Peter Kam
    Peter Kam
    Peter Kam Pui-Tat is a music composer for Hong Kong films including The Warlords and Bodyguards and Assassins.Peter is a four-time winner at the Hong Kong Film Awards.-External links:...

    , Jacky Cheung
    Jacky Cheung
    Jacky Cheung is a Hong Kong singer-songwriter and actor. The Chinese language media refers to him, Aaron Kwok, Andy Lau and Leon Lai as the Cantopop Four Heavenly Kings , with more than 60 million records sold as of 2000....

    )
  • Nominated: Best Picture
  • Nominated: Best Director (Peter Chan
    Peter Chan
    Peter Chan Ho-sun , is a film director and producer.-Life and career:Chan was born in Bangkok to Chinese parents. He spent his teens in and studied in Hong Kong and United States, and he attended film school at UCLA. He returned to Hong Kong in 1983 for a summer internship in the film industry....

    )
  • Nominated: Best Film Editing (Wenders Li, Chi-Leung Kwong)
  • Nominated: Best Screenplay (Oi Wah Lam, Raymond To)
  • Nominated: Best Sound Design (Kinson Tsang)

43rd Golden Horse Awards

  • Won: Best Actress (Zhou Xun)
  • Won: Best Cinematography (Peter Pau)
  • Won: Best Director (Peter Chan)
  • Won: Best Original Film Song (Leon Ko
    Leon Ko
    Leon Ko Sai Tseung is a composer for musical theatre and films. He won a Richard Rodgers Development Award, a Golden Horse Award and numerous musical awards. His mother, Lucilla You Min , was a famous actress in post-war Hong Kong Mandarin cinema and won the 1st Annual Golden Horse Awards and two...

    )
  • Nominated: Best Film
  • Nominated: Best Action Choreography (Wei Tung, Farah Khan)
  • Nominated: Best Art Direction (Chung Man Yee, Pater Wong)
  • Nominated: Best Film Editing (Wenders Li, Chi-Leung Kwong)
  • Nominated: Best Makeup & Costume Design (Chung Man Yee)
  • Nominated: Best Original Film Score (Peter Kam, Leon Ko
    Leon Ko
    Leon Ko Sai Tseung is a composer for musical theatre and films. He won a Richard Rodgers Development Award, a Golden Horse Award and numerous musical awards. His mother, Lucilla You Min , was a famous actress in post-war Hong Kong Mandarin cinema and won the 1st Annual Golden Horse Awards and two...

    )
  • Nominated: Best Sound Effects (Kinson Tsang)
  • Nominated: Best Visual Effects (Siu Lun Ho, Pornpol Sakarin)

Comparisons

The film is often compared to Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge!
Moulin Rouge! is a 2001 romantic jukebox musical film directed, produced, and co-written by Baz Luhrmann. Following the Red Curtain Cinema principles, the film is based on the Orphean myth, La Traviata, and La Bohème...

, as it prominently features the device of a story within a story
Story within a story
A story within a story, also rendered story-within-a-story, is a literary device in which one narrative is presented during the action of another narrative. Mise en abyme is the French term for a similar literary device...

, which depicts a real-life love triangle between the actors themselves. Unlike Moulin Rouge! however, the musical numbers are limited to the inner show.

In an interview with the Malaysian newspaper The Star
The Star (Malaysia)
The Star is an English-language, tabloid-format newspaper in Malaysia. It is the largest in terms of circulation in Malaysia, according to the . It has a daily circulation of between 290,000 to 300,000...

, director Peter Chan stressed that "Perhaps Love is a love story, not a musical. It's not even being promoted as a musical. It's not a musical in the conventional sense. My characters don’t break out into song. Initially, it was a challenge to balance the over-the-top element in musicals and the subtleties of a movie. In the end, the method I used to overcome that was to make a movie-within-a-movie." The interview appeared in the November 25, 2005 edition of The Star, as Peter Chan was in Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur
Kuala Lumpur is the capital and the second largest city in Malaysia by population. The city proper, making up an area of , has a population of 1.4 million as of 2010. Greater Kuala Lumpur, also known as the Klang Valley, is an urban agglomeration of 7.2 million...

 to promote his film.

The film has also drawn comparisons to Bollywood
Bollywood
Bollywood is the informal term popularly used for the Hindi-language film industry based in Mumbai , Maharashtra, India. The term is often incorrectly used to refer to the whole of Indian cinema; it is only a part of the total Indian film industry, which includes other production centers producing...

, the Indian film industry famous for its musical films. The Hollywood Reporter described Perhaps Love as "Bollywood meets Bob Fosse
Bob Fosse
Robert Louis “Bob” Fosse was an American actor, dancer, musical theater choreographer, director, screenwriter, film editor and film director. He won an unprecedented eight Tony Awards for choreography, as well as one for direction...

." Bollywood director and choreographer Farah Khan
Farah Khan
Farah Khan is an Indian film director and choreographer. She is best known for her choreographical work in numerous Bollywood films. Khan has choreographed dance routines for more than a hundred songs in over 80 Hindi films. Khan has since become a noted Hindi film director as well...

 choreographed the film, which featured nine Indian dancers who appeared in several musical numbers. The double-disc Region 3 editions of the film also contained a feature on the film's Bollywood dancers on the second disc.

Video and soundtrack releases

The soundtrack was released in two versions: a single-disc version in a jewel case and a limited-edition, double-disc, boxed set
Boxed set
A box set is a compilation of various musical recordings, films, television programs, or other collection of related items that are contained in a box.-Music box sets:...

 version. The double-disc version was marketed as a "Special Deluxe Edition" and included a bright red slipcase (embossed to look like leather) with gold lettering. The slipcase was seven and three-fourths inches tall, one and three-fourths inches deep, and five and three-fourts inches wide. It included a twenty-eight page hardcover
Hardcover
A hardcover, hardback or hardbound is a book bound with rigid protective covers...

 book, printed on thick paper, which included a synopsis of the film and brief biographies of its stars in both Chinese and English. The book also included eighteen color photographs. The soundtrack was presented in a folding case with the music on a compact disc
Compact Disc
The Compact Disc is an optical disc used to store digital data. It was originally developed to store and playback sound recordings exclusively, but later expanded to encompass data storage , write-once audio and data storage , rewritable media , Video Compact Discs , Super Video Compact Discs ,...

 and a "making of" movie on a DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....

 disc. The folding case also included five postcards (including one for each of the film's four major stars) and a poster. The "Special Deluxe Edition" retailed for around US$25.

The DVD of the film was released in four different Region 3 DVD editions, including three versions released in Hong Kong and China: a single-disc edition, a double-disc "Special Edition", and a double-disc "Golden Limited Edition." A single-disc edition was also released in Korea
Korea
Korea ) is an East Asian geographic region that is currently divided into two separate sovereign states — North Korea and South Korea. Located on the Korean Peninsula, Korea is bordered by the People's Republic of China to the northwest, Russia to the northeast, and is separated from Japan to the...

 and had Korean
Korean language
Korean is the official language of the country Korea, in both South and North. It is also one of the two official languages in the Yanbian Korean Autonomous Prefecture in People's Republic of China. There are about 78 million Korean speakers worldwide. In the 15th century, a national writing...

 subtitles.

The "Special Edition" included a gold-colored cardboard slipcase and a digipak
Digipak
Digipak is a patented style of CD, DVD or BD packaging, and is a registered trademark of AGI World Ltd., an Atlas Holdings company.-Features:...

 with two DVDs. The first disc, in DVD-9 format, contained the film with optional subtitles in English, traditional Chinese, or simplified Chinese. The second disc, in DVD-5 format, contained sixty minutes of bonus material, including a "making of" feature, a b-roll
B-roll
B-roll, B roll, or Broll is the supplemental or alternate footage intercut with the main shot in an interview or documentary.- History :The term B-roll originates from the method of 16 mm film production from an original camera negative...

, additional information on the cast, an extended credit list, and a feature on the film's Bollywood dancers, as well as other clips. This set retailed for US$18.

The "Golden Limited Edition" was limited to only 4,000 copies and was essentially the same as the "Special Edition", except that it also included a hardcover book of nearly two dozen pages with a gold-colored cover. It retailed for around US$40.

The film was also released on VCD
VCD
VCD is a three-letter abbreviation with multiple meanings, as described below:* VCD Athletic, semi-professional football team* Video CD* Voice command device* Value change dump * Vocal cord dysfunction* Visual Communication and Design...

in a three-disc set that retailed for around US$9.
Pirated DVDs of the film also appeared within days of the film being released in theaters, and were available for purchase for US$2-US$3.

External links

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