A Beautiful Life
Description:
Among the steady stream of new Chinese movies opening in America, “A Beautiful Life” stands out — rather than an overstuffed, jingoistic historical tale or martial-arts blowout, it’s a contemporary romantic melodrama with a plaintive pop soundtrack that might call to mind “Terms of Endearment,” “The Other Sister” or, most strongly, a Nora Ephron comedy minus most of the laughs. (There’s also a bit of “Memento” thrown in.) It’s no great shakes, but a substantial number of American moviegoers — soft-hearted, slightly masochistic and largely abandoned by Hollywood — would like it if they found their way to it. The first hour, especially, is charming, before the balance shifts from romance to melodrama to, in the final minutes, the kind of maudlin crescendo that Asian audiences are accustomed to. The director, Andrew Lau, gives further proof of his versatility, having already shown that he can make very good gangster movies (“Infernal Affairs”) and so-so kung-fu epics (“Legend of the Fist,” which opened in the United States last month). He practices heroic restraint and delicacy, given the five main characters he’s been handed: one’s blind, one’s autistic, one’s mute, one has early-onset dementia and one’s a healthy, bitter drunk. Mr. Lau is helped by his charismatic stars, Shu Qi and Liu Ye, both of whom are very appealing within the narrow range set for them. Mr. Liu plays an upright cop who’s slowly losing his memory and leaves himself notes to remind him of his daily tasks; Ms. Shu has the Holly Golightly role as a real estate agent trying to strike it rich in Beijing so that she can support her parasitic Hong Kong family. (One not very convincing theme of the film is Beijing incorruptibility versus Hong Kong decadence.) She’s a bit forced and shrill in her drunk scenes, but otherwise she underplays adroitly and flashes some sly humor.
Country: Chinese
Status: Completed
Released: 2011
Login to Drama Cool
Log in with Google- Genre
- Coming Eps
- Ongoing
Genres
-
Accident
-
Action
-
Adventure
-
Alien
-
Amnesia
-
Ancient legend
-
Animals
-
Animation
-
Arthouse
-
Artificial Intelligence
-
Award Winning
-
Based on a Comic
-
Based on True Story
-
Betrayal
-
Biography
-
BL
-
Bodyguard
-
Bromance
-
Business
-
Chambara
-
Childhood
-
Christmas
-
Cohabitation
-
Cold Man
-
Coma
-
Comedy
-
Concert
-
Conglomerate
-
Conspiracy
-
Contract Relationship
-
Corruption
-
Crime
-
Criminal
-
Curse
-
Dance
-
Deity
-
Demon
-
Detective
-
Disability
-
Disaster
-
Documentary
-
Drama
-
Eastern
-
Educational
-
Entertainment
-
Environment
-
Erotica
-
Espionage
-
Exorcism
-
Exploitation
-
Fairy
-
Family
-
Fantasy
-
Fashion
-
Feminism
-
Food
-
Foreign
-
Friendship
-
Game Developer
-
Gangster
-
Geishas
-
Gore
-
Goryeo Dynasty
-
Grudge
-
Gumiho
-
Harem
-
Hidden Identity
-
Historical
-
Horror
-
Hostage
-
Human
-
Hypnotism
-
Idol Drama
-
Indie
-
Instructional
-
Investigation
-
Jidai Geki
-
Josei
-
Kidnapping
-
Kung Fu
-
Law
-
legal
-
Lesbian
-
LGBTQ+
-
life
-
Love Triangle
-
Mafia
-
Magic
-
Manga
-
Manhua
-
Martial Arts
-
Mature
-
Medical
-
melodrama
-
Mermaid
-
Military
-
Miniseries
-
Misunderstanding
-
Monster
-
Murder
-
Music
-
Musical
-
Mystery
-
Mythology
-
Nature
-
Neighbours
-
Noir
-
Novel
-
Omnibus
-
One shot
-
Parody
-
Phobia
-
Poison
-
police
-
political
-
Power Struggle
-
Prison
-
Professional
-
Programmer
-
psychiatry
-
Psychological
-
Reality
-
Reality Show
-
Reality TV
-
Rebellion
-
Religion
-
Renzoku
-
Republic
-
Resurrection
-
Revenge
-
Rich Man
-
Robot
-
Romance
-
RPG
-
Rural
-
Samurai
-
Scholar
-
School
-
Sci-fi
-
Seinen
-
Serial Killer
-
Short
-
Sismance
-
Sitcom
-
Slapstick
-
Slice of Life
-
Society
-
Soulmates
-
Sports
-
Supernatural
-
Survival
-
Suspense
-
Swordsman
-
Taiga drama
-
Teamwork
-
Tearjerker
-
Teen
-
Terrorist
-
Thief
-
Thriller
-
Time Travel
-
Tokusatsu
-
Tomboy
-
Tragedy
-
Tragic Past
-
Transmigration
-
Trauma
-
Treason
-
Triad
-
Underworld
-
Unrequited Love
-
urban drama
-
Vampire
-
Variety
-
Variety show
-
War
-
Warrior
-
Web Series
-
Webtoon
-
Werewolf
-
Western
-
Witch
-
Workplace
-
Wuxia
-
Yakuza
-
Yaoi
-
Youth
-
Yuri
-
Zombie
Coming Episode
-
Bitter Sweet Hell (2024) Episode 4
About 18 hours -
Connection (2024) Episode 4
About 18 hours -
The Atypical Family (2024) Episode 9
About 1 day -
Running Man (2010) Episode 708
About 2 days -
Missing Crown Prince (2024) Episode 15
About 2 days -
Missing Crown Prince (2024) Episode 16
About 2 days -
The Atypical Family (2024) Episode 10
About 2 days -
The Midnight Romance in Hagwon (2024) Episode 7
About 2 days -
The Midnight Romance in Hagwon (2024) Episode 8
About 2 days -
Beauty and Mr. Romantic (2024) Episode 21
About 2 days -
Beauty and Mr. Romantic (2024) Episode 22
About 2 days -
OMG! Vampire (2024) Episode 3
About 2 days -
Kimi to Yukite Saku: Shinsengumi Seishunroku (2024) Episode 4
About 3 days -
Secret Ingredient (2024) Episode 6
About 3 days -
Dare to Love Me (2024) Episode 7
About 4 days -
Dare to Love Me (2024) Episode 8
About 4 days -
Crash (2024) Episode 7
About 4 days -
Crash (2024) Episode 8
About 4 days -
Whenever Possible (2024) Episode 7
About 4 days -
We Are (2024) Episode 10
About 5 days -
Frankly Speaking (2024) Episode 11
About 6 days -
Dreaming of a Freaking Fairytale (2024) Episode 3
About 6 days -
Dreaming of a Freaking Fairytale (2024) Episode 4
About 6 days -
The Brave Yong Soo Jung (2024) Episode 21
About 7 days -
In Cold Blood (2024) Episode 95
About 7 days -
Soo Ji & Woo Ri (2024) Episode 50
About 7 days
Popular Ongoing
-
Dreaming of a Freaking Fairytale (2024)
-
Bitter Sweet Hell (2024)
-
Uncle Samsik (2024)
-
Crash (2024)
-
The Midnight Romance in Hagwon (2024)
-
Connection (2024)
-
Dare to Love Me (2024)
-
The Atypical Family (2024)
-
Girls High School Mystery Class Season 3 (2024)
-
Missing Crown Prince (2024)
-
Fox Spirit Matchmaker: Red-Moon Pact (2024)
-
The Last Cook (2024)
-
Beauty and Mr. Romantic (2024)
-
Frankly Speaking (2024)
-
The Brave Yong Soo Jung (2024)
-
Only Boo! (2024)
-
My Marvellous Dream Is You (2024)
-
Wandee Goodday (2024)
-
Bangkok Blossom (2024)
-
Memory in the Letter (2024)
-
We Are (2024)
-
Tempting Heart (2024)
-
Summer Strike (2022)
-
The Cheating Heist (2024)
-
The Opera of Love (2024)
-
Enigma (2023)
-
Love in Translation (2023)
-
23:23 (2023)
-
Shadow Enemy (2022)
-
Mr. Rose: The Secret Spy (2022)
-
My Queen (2022)
-
Bad Beauty (2022)
-
My Dear Rescuer (2022)
-
Makkali The Love Tree (2022)
-
Music and Krasue (2022)
-
Sweet Prison (2022)