Search - Healing Hearts on DVD

Romance melodrama that evokes life and death

Matthew M. Yau | San Francisco, CA | 07/20/2003

(4 out of 5 stars)

"Award-winning actor Tony Leung (In the Mood for Love) and Michelle Reis star in a melodrama that pulls the heartstring. Reis plays Jackie, a typical Hong Kong white-collared girl-svelte, convivial, and cluelessly flirtatious. She had been in coma for a year after attempting suicide and her boyfriend Paul, who was a surgeon, faithfully took care of her with an undying flicker of hope for miracle.Paul's prayers were answered as one day Jackie evoked from her unconsciousness in the presence of Paul's colleague, Lawrence. Maybe it was the magic spell of love at first sight, or a mystic déjà vu, Jackie felt she was in the debt of Lawrence for her miraculous awakening. Jackie had inevitably fallen in love with Lawrence as he tirelessly helped, out of his friendship with Paul, a gesture of kindness and a doctor's visceral benevolence, her settle in and re-adjust to normal life.Filled with painfully funny scenes and bittersweet manifesto of life's cruelty, Healing Hearts evokes the unbearable impregnability of life and death. From day to day, the hospital and its medical staff witness the partings of families, endnotes of fragile lives, and the fine line that demarcates life and death. How would a surgeon like Lawrence, who is accustomed to confront and certify death with a professional equanimity, cope with the death of his loved one?Healing Hearts might not have been a blockbuster in Hong Kong cinema but it touched on the conflicting attitude of lovers: trying hard not to fall in love and evading hurt. Lawrence tried not to disclose to Jackie about her brain tumor and Jackie, upon finding out the cruel truth, alienated herself from Lawrence as he had been tortured by his ex-girlfriend's tragic death in a hit-and-run accident. Tony Leung delivers a solid performance impersonating a surgeon. Michelle Reis, the Hong Kong beauty queen and model, acts within her ability, though she is not within the ballpark of award-winning actress like Maggie Cheung. Healing Hearts is an overlooked romance drama (which is rare in Hong Kong, as the film industry is inundated with mindless, farcical comedies, if not eye-bulging and blood-spitting gang thrillers) that will pull the heartstrings. 4.0 stars."

Michelle Reis and Tony in a medical drama

david | representing for the champions, LAKERS! | 07/13/2002

(3 out of 5 stars)

"Jackie(Michelle) is a recently-awakened coma patient that was loved by a doctor named Kenny Bee while she was in coma. But Michelle shows affection toward the emotionally scarred doctor, Lawrence(Tony Leung)The actors look good and all but the story and direction are nothing new. and what's with Valerie Chow and Stephen Fung??"