BREAKING ICE

 BREAKING ICE

Anthony Chen's fourth feature, The Breaking Ice (2023), marks a decade since he brought home the accolade Camera d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival for his debut feature, Ilo Ilo (2013). The Breaking Ice premiered at Cannes's Un Certain Regard race this year, and is Chen's first Mainland Chinese film, starring Golden Horse Best Actress Award winner Dongyu Zhou, together with co-stars Haoran Liu and Chuxiao Qu.

 

The film tells a story that explores themes of redemption, loneliness and the blurred lines between friendship and love. The three leads formed a love triangle in the movie, a portrayal which reminded several audiences of François Truffaut’s Jules et Jim (1962).

For casual moviegoers or audiences who aren’t familiar with Chen and Chen's work, it is easy to see this film as one made by a Mainland Chinese filmmaker. In his attempt to tell the story he wanted this time, Chen eluded nationalities, geography, culture and customs.

 

The Breaking Ice revolves around Nana (Dongyu Zhou) - a former competitive figure-skater turned tour guide in Yanji; Haofeng (Haoran Liu) - a bright but depressed finance executive who works in Shanghai; and Xiao (Chuxiao Qu) - a worker in his relatives' restaurant living in regret for not realizing his potential. Three people from extremely different backgrounds formed an unlikely bond, at times a love triangle, at times three bodies sharing one same soul, and other times floating in-between.

 

The Breaking Ice, when compared to Chen’s first two features – Ilo Ilo and Wet Season – shows an improvement in crafting not one or even two but three central characters and their respective back stories to a relative degree of perfection. To this end, Chen deserves massive praises, but might I add, this feat in itself brings about the film’s imperfections. That, as interesting and even entertaining as watching the three leads may be, the plot or story started from good at best, to a point where even with the resolutions of the three leads being ambiguous, I couldn’t push myself to genuinely care about finding out what exactly happened to them after the events in the film.

The film stands tall on its compelling performances from the three leads, and on Chen’s direction. Apart from Cannes, the only other major awards news for the film so far is that Singapore has chosen it to represent the country at next year's Oscars in the international feature category, but it's still a long way and the first hurdle would be making into the shortlist. Zhou's performance needs no additional praises, it's a pity The Breaking Ice isn't gonna hit the Golden Horse Awards this year else Zhou might've been in the run for her second best actress award. Both the gentlemen did a wonderful job with their own characters too but if only Chen had given more time and space to dive into Xiao’s story would Qu then match his co-stars’ presence.

 

The Breaking Ice is a visually stunning film that warrants a theatrical first watch, and a second watch for those of us interested (yes that includes me) from the comfort of our bed or couch.