Love in the Time of Twilight (1995)

Typically lush and compulsively idiosyncratic

A wonderfully warm blend of fantasy, romance, and Looney Tunes-style comedy, don't be fooled by Love in the Time of Twilight's sappy title; it's all a mask for what is ultimately a nifty time travel murder mystery period piece. The setup for this elaborately staged romantic fantasy screams Tsui Hark from minute one. To bring his protagonists together, Tsui uses a series of overdone comedic coincidences which make American slapstick seem like slow-paced melodrama. There's muggy shtick, unfortunate puke gags, horribly dated effects and romantic misdirections aplenty. While it all seems agreeable, the alternate reaction may be one of bemused exhaustion. Sure, everything in this world is cute and silly, but it can also be tiring due to the bizarre leaps of logic which seem to operate as a sort of shorthand. The film is incredibly opaque story-wise, but Hark infuses his pictures with a kaleidoscopic energy and cinematic charm that's infectious and even beguiling, causing you to look past so many of these issues with a smile on your face. Helped wonderfully by the magnetic chemistry between Charlie Yeung and Nicky Wu that shines throughout; even when the duo are bickering nonstop, they make for an incredible onscreen pairing with performances to match. Typically lush, compulsively idiosyncratic and eclectic, but put together with the usual Tsui Hark panache, Love in the Time of Twilight is an entertaining little film that accomplishes more in its 100 minutes than most films can ever aspire to despite a truly bizarre series of plot devices and an occasionally incoherent narrative.

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