Romancing in Thin Air

Johnnie To's 2012 Hong Kong film follows a famous actor abandoned at his own wedding. He flees to a high mountain town in western China, where he meets a woman running a hotel who turns out to be one of his fans. The idea is fiction taking the place of the real. The woman lost her husband years ago and sustains a story that he will return; the man is caught between his image on screen and himself. Both live inside a story constructed by someone else. To is known for crime films and this is one of the few melodramas in his career. Louis Koo and Sammi Cheng lead. The cinematography uses the altitude and the forest throughout. Who it's for: those curious about Hong Kong melodrama and Johnnie To's cinema. Who it's not for: viewers expecting the director's crime films; this one belongs to an entirely different strain.