Don't Go Breaking My Heart Blu-ray Movie

Rating summary

Movie		3.0
Video		4.0
Audio		4.5
Extras		2.5
Overall		3.0

Don't Go Breaking My Heart Blu-ray Movie Review

Reviewed by Dr. Svet Atanasov September 18, 2011

Screened at the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival, Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai's "Daan gyun naam yu" a.k.a "Don't Go Breaking My Heart" (2011) arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors MegaStar. The supplemental features on the disc include theatrical trailers, making of featurette, and deleted scenes. In Mandarin, Cantonese and English, with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature. Region-A "locked".

Bad news again

Yen (Yuanyuan Gao, Beijing Bicycle, City of Life and Death) is a young, beautiful and single again girl from the mainland working in a large IT company in Hong Kong. She often feels lonely and thinks about how much better her life would be if she could find a new boyfriend, but there is no one around her that gives her butterflies. The guys she meets in her building are boring workaholics, which is why most of the time she is seriously depressed.

Then one day Yen meets two guys who literally turn her world upside down. The first, Sean (Louis Koo, Accident, Poker King), is a CEO of a large financial services company whose office is in the building right across Yen’s. He offers to buy her a cup of coffee, she accepts, and half an hour later they arrange to meet again. But the God of Relationships spoils their plan and Yen meets Kevin (Daniel Wu, Everlasting Regret, Shinjuku Incident), a drunk with some serious emotional baggage, who saves her life in downtown Hong Kong.

Fastforward. Yen begins dating Sean, for his money, and Kevin, because he is a nice guy who needs help. A few dates later, both become convinced that she is the woman of their dreams. In the meantime, Yen keeps gravitating around them until eventually they become aware of each other's existence. This is where the film shifts gears - Sean and Kevin reveal sides of their personalities that seriously confuse Yen. Then her confusion inspires the two bachelors to do some quite stupid/romantic things to earn her heart.

Don’t Go Breaking My Heart essentially proves that light romantic comedies are not Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai ‘s forte. The creative duo behind such original films as Full Time Killer, Running on Karma, and Mad Detective has simply rehashed a ton of clichés into what was very obviously an attempt to gain some extra popularity on the mainland. Naturally, the film was shot in Mandarin, with small bits of Cantonese and English.

The film’s only redeeming quality is the rather good chemistry between the leads. Considering how annoyingly predictable all of the subplots are, Yuanyuan Gao, Louis Koo, and Daniel Wu manage to keep things somewhat interesting with a series of hilarious improvisations that infuse a small dose of authenticity in the film. Unfortunately, the protracted finale (predictably wrapping up things on the mainland) makes the main characters look so ridiculous that even seasoned viewers who are immune to Hollywood-esque bloated and totally unrealistic romantic comedies are likely to have a very difficult time enduring all the soapy kitsch that is loaded in it.

The production values are good. Cinematographers Cheng Siu-keung (Running Out of Time, Exiled) and To Hung Mo’s (Breaking News, Throw Down) lensing is slick and fluid, giving the film a distinctively contemporary though often sterile look. The panoramic vistas with the skyscrapers at the end, in particular, look great. David M. Richardson’s editing is also competent. The film also features a good soundtrack courtesy of French composer Xavier Jamaux (Sparrow, Accident).

Note: Earlier this year, Don’t Go Breaking My Heart was the opening film at the 35th Hong Kong International Film Festival. The film was also screened at the Fantasia International Film Festival.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart Blu-ray Movie, Video Quality 

Presented in an aspect ratio of 2.35:1, encoded with MPEG-4 AVC and granted a 1080p transfer, Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai's Don't Go Breaking My Heart arrives on Blu-ray courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors MegaStar.

There seems to be some extremely mild filtering applied throughout the entire film. However, its presence is practically unrecognizable while viewing the film, and I could not see any disturbing side effects to report in this review. The close-ups as well as the various panoramic shots from Hong Kong and the mainland look very good. Additionally, clarity and contrast levels never fluctuate, and color reproduction is also convincing. Edge-enhancement is not a serious issue of concern, though there are a few scenes where mild sharpening is present. Large artifacts, aliasing and ringing patterns do not plague the transfer. (Note: This is a Region-A "locked" Blu-ray disc. Therefore, you must have a native Region-A or Region-Free PS3 or SA in order to access its content).

Don't Go Breaking My Heart Blu-ray Movie, Audio Quality 

There are three audio tracks on this Blu-ray disc: Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1, Cantonese Dolby Digital 5.1, and Mandarin Dolby Digital 5.1. For the record, MegaStar have provided optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified Chinese subtitles for the main feature. When turned on, they appear inside the image frame.

The Cantonese DTS-HD Master Audio 7.1 track has been optimized as best as possible. Surround activity is rather limited but its dynamic amplitude is indeed quite impressive (for a non-action film more or less as nuanced as it could possibly be). Xavier Jamaux's soundtrack, for instance, gets a solid boost and adds up quite a bit of flavor to the film. Unsurprisingly, the dialog is crisp, clean, stable, and easy to follow. The English translation is very good, though there are a couple of small syntax errors that could have been avoided.

Don't Go Breaking My Heart Blu-ray Movie, Special Features and Extras 

• Trailer 1 - in Mandarin, with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified subtitles. (2 min, 1080p).

• Trailer 2 - in Mandarin and Cantonese , with optional English, Traditional Chinese, and Simplified subtitles. (2 min, 1080p).

• Making of - a standard featurette with raw footage from the shooting of the film. In Mandarin and Cantonese, with imposed Traditional Chinese subtitles. (10 min, 480i).

• Extra Footage - a gallery of deleted scenes. In Cantonese and Mandarin, with optional Traditional Chinese and Simplified Chinese subtitles. (7 min, 480/60i).

(Note: The Blu-ray disc arrives with a Buy 1 Get 1 Free Coffee coupon, which can be used at Caffe Habitu).

Don't Go Breaking My Heart Blu-ray Movie, Overall Score and Recommendation 

Johnnie To and Wai Ka Fai's Don't Go Breaking My Heart is a somewhat entertaining but ultimately quite predictable romantic comedy that could earn serious points for guys who want to impress their future girlfriends. In other words, it is a great film to see on a date, but not so great to see alone. The Blu-ray disc herein reviewed, courtesy of Hong Kong-based distributors MegaStar, looks good and sounds terrific. RENT IT.