“The Breaking Ice”, cute as trouple – Liberation

2023-05-23 22:43:32

Ten years after his golden camera, the Singaporean Anthony Chen returns with a love triangle story on the Sino-Korean border. Cute but forgettable.

Camera d’or in 2013 for his first feature film, Ilo Ilo (jury chaired by Agnès Varda), the Singaporean Anthony Chen returns to Cannes exactly ten years after this successful baptism to present The Breaking Ice, love triangle in the chilly landscapes of the Chinese city of Yanji, on the border with North Korea, which is home to a large Chinese-Korean community. Haofeng, a touchy young man working in finance in Shanghai, is there for a wedding. He meets the tourist guide Nana and her friend Xiao, a cook in a restaurant. All three will share a few days and nights of vacation and more or less alcoholic marivaudages bathed in atmospheric layers. It’s cute as anything, we would like to ride a motorcycle with them but it’s not going anywhere and we forget it as soon as we leave the room.

In some perspective. The Breaking Ice d’Anthony Chen, avec Dongyu Zhou, Haoran Liu… 1h37.