Fly Me to the Moon (2023) User Reviews

The unattainable and the wishful

[flcntk3-856-986017 · 9/10 · 1 January 2024]

A movie that is represented by names of two songs, a Chinese one for the film's Chinese title and "Fly Me to the Moon" for its English title with each suggesting one side of the common and yet different views of the unattainable or the wishful, where we live on by doing our best in spite of life's short falls and where we find solace and comfort that may seem small in gestures to most, but are actually significant in meaning to the giver and perhaps even the recipient for we are bonded together as humans. The film places us as silent observers by gently ripping open the curtain and leads us into lives of a family of mainlanders who try to survive, integrate, sustain as a family and grow as individuals in the metropolis of Hong Kong. The realism and the subtleties of the portrayals is a tribute to the artistry and craftsmanship of the director and the cast. Here I get to see once again, the superb performance of Kang Ren Wu. But because the approach in this film is very cinéma vérité, the camera decidedly took a more distance, more observing and more detached approach. Therefore, sometimes I wish I could get more involved with the characters through stronger dramatization by way of the cinematography and the editing. But that's just a matter of choice by the convention of the chosen style. Other than the performances, the cinematography, the art direction, the editing and the music are harmoniously orchestrated together into a symphony of how life is making the best of what it got because this is life. In closing, this is a film which I highly recommend. Just the performances are worth the price of the ticket.

I wanted to like it, but...

[tarzancuteandgood · 4/10 · 21 April 2024]

After watching the trailer, my expectations were set high. The 1997 part and the 2017 part were the only parts necessary. The story should've changed. I know the protagonist has bad luck finding a boyfriend because everyone turns out like her father, but it should've been conveyed in a better way. It should've been a postive ending instead of a negative ending, Yuan Yuan smoking like her father is a terrible idea, she knows what happened to her father so she wouldn't've followed him. The dad not quitting smoking is so bad, I feel like the Mom not getting a divorce is a stupid idea, which wife doesn't divorce their husband after he's in jail? The 1997 part was at least ok, the mom taking her kids back to Hu Nan would've been such a good idea, and maybe the Dad comes back but the mom hates it. I thought this movie would make be cry due to the trailer but it turned out making me cringe. The camerawork after the 1997 part looks like something out of a Roblox youtuber's camerawork. Everything turns so bad after the 1997 part. Yuan Yuan speaking japanese all of a sudden is very weird, how can she learn Japanese all of a sudden? Overall the script could've changed a lot, and the production team did a very very bad job of making what the movie is, its title is Fly me to the moon' but they made it into 'Take me to hell'.