Movie Review: Floating City/浮城

A boat-dwelling family takes in a Eurasian baby and raises him as one of their own.

These people were traditionally social outsiders, so they accept the baby much more easily than others.

Growing up, Bo Wa Chuen faces insults and discrimination from both sides as he struggles to take care of his family, build one of his own, and discover who he is.

Floating City/浮城 is apparently based on real characters. And it’s no secret that Eurasians faced a lot of prejudice in Hong Kong.

According to some people, Anthony Wong’s early career saw him playing a lot of bad guys because he’s Eurasian.

So there you go.

Even if you didn’t know any of that stuff, you would learn it watching Floating City/浮城.

It’s an interesting story that spans a lot of Hong Kong’s recent history.

And it’s set in some really interesting scenery that we don’t see very often in local films.

But to be honest, the execution leaves a lot to be desired.

I don’t want to go negative this early in the review, I really don’t.

Because early on, Floating City/浮城 is pretty good.

I mean, it opens with some really sketchy CGI, but I can forgive that.

But if you say a baby has blue eyes, why show me a brown-eyed baby?

CGI would be okay with me, since you shouldn’t put contact lenses on a baby.

But never mind that.

Floating City/浮城 is so ponderous and heavy-handed that it literally exhausts you when you watch it.

It’s very obvious very early that Floating City is a story about identity.

So there’s no need to have a scene where Aaron Kwok asks himself “Who am I?”

There’s also no excuse for makeup being so obvious on an actor in this day and age.

Aaron Kwok plays Bo Wah Chuen, a Eurasian. He’s adopted by Josie Ho as the younger incarnation of his mother. She refuses to allow anyone inside or outside of the family to say anything about Bo’s difference.

Bau Hei Jing plays Bo’s mother in her older years, and she is fantastic in the role.

If I don’t like  Floating City/浮城, it’s definitely not because of her.

Bo’s wife Tai is played by Charlie Young, who again does a good job with a role that should have been bigger, or at least her character should have been much better developed.

The film squanders a chance to make it’s central premise more detailed and well-defined.

As unfinished as Charlie Young’s character is, Annie Liu’s Fiona has such blatant aspirations of being a homewrecker that it couldn’t have been more obvious if she was naked in every scene, touching herself.

That wouldn’t offend me. I’m just pointing it out.

Some of the young actors aren’t very good, but you know what?

Bad child actors are better human beings than good child actors.

You know what I mean.

Some of the things that amused me in this movie may not have been intentional.

At one point, Bo’s boss tells him “We won’t delay you any more.”

Okay, maybe that was intentional.

But I’m 110% certain that the filmmakers had no idea that a face painted on a lantern by a child looks exactly like Mr. Bill.

Oh nooooo!

Floating City/浮城 is a film I wanted to like, and in some ways I can’t dislike it.

There were moments in the film I really enjoyed.

But overall, across the running time, it tries to be so meaningful that instead it starts sinking under its own weight.

It’s really a shame, because a lot of the sets and costumes are really nice to see.

Most local movies are set in the present because it’s cheaper.

So seeing recreations of Hong Kong across the last half-century is a lot of fun.

You just have to be very patient and forgiving to see them.