Everyphone Everywhere has its heart in Hong Kong and remembers the good old days (Film review)

  

A poster for the film that actually tells a lot about it!

 

Everyphone Everywhere (Hong Kong, 2023)

- Amos Why, director, co-scriptwriter (along with Frankie Chung and Kong Yu-sing) and co-producer (with five others)

- Starring: Endy Chow, Peter Chan Charm-man, Rosa Maria Velasco

 

Prior to viewing Amos Why's latest (and fourth) film, I didn't look very closely at its poster.  (This is not least because I don't tend to decide whether or not go watch a movie based on how its poster looks!)  But after doing so though, I'm struck by how much it reveals about -- and mirrors -- Everyphone Everywhere.  

 

It's not just that the poster makes clear who are the film's main personalities: a Cheung Chau resident named Kit (played by Endy Chow sporting a similar hairstyle to Cheung Chau resident Amos Why!); a besuited property agent named Raymond (played by Peter Chan Charm-man) whose imminent emigration to the UK prompts a reunion of a trio of old school friends; and Ana (Rosa Maria Velasco), Chit's old sweetheart as well as his and Raymond's former schoolmate.  But the #GoodOldDays hash tag also provides a clue as to where the ultimately pretty touching movie's true heart lies.

 

At the same time, Everyphone Everywhere also does have stories involving -- you guessed it -- phones: old and new; and predominantly mobile phones though an older desk set and a cordless telephone set also make appearances in the movie!  But although the early part of this dramedy presents a number of subplots involving newer phones and the problems that they can cause (e.g., when one is accidentally left at home or has been hacked but, also, when they are used to scam people or spy on them), my sense is that their primary role in the film is to act as as macguffins more than anything else.

 

Instead, again, remember the #GoodOldDays hash tag and wait for the appearance of a trio of phones that were first in use 25 years ago, when Kit, Raymond and Ana were younger -- and in their final days at school, typed and saved a series of answers to a series of questions they had posed one another.  And, in the process, used their phones in a way that comes across as pretty novel: specifically, as time capsules!

 

If truth be told, I'd have been fine with Everyphone Everywhere being a three-hander because I found Kit, Raymond and Ana interesting characters whose depths were not completely plumbed to my complete satisfaction!  And while they may not be big names in the Hong Kong film world, I also find Endy Chow (who I saw most recently before this in The Sunny Side of the Street), Peter Chan Charm-man (who held his own in the more star-studded likes of Table for Six and Mad Fate) and Rosa Maria Velasco (who I first saw years ago in a Hong Kong Repertory Theatre production directed by Stan Lai) to be very watchable performers.

 

In any case, the best scenes in the movie for my by far had this trio interacting with one another -- and, ironically, on an indoor set that could have been set anywhere in Hong Kong, or even the world!  I say "ironically" because, in addition to depicting personal human relations very well, Amos Why -- one of those people who I know really f**king loves Hong Kong -- also is adept at making Hong Kong itself a character in his movies (and, when shot, as in this film by Leung Ming-kai, look really beautiful). 

 

Put another way: my main criticism of Everyphone Everywhere is that it could -- and should -- have been less crowded and busy and, instead, more streaminlined.  If so, it wouldn't have taken so long to get to the heart of the truly affecting story.  But I get the feeling that this was because, among other things, Amos Why wanted to make room in the film for other topics he wanted to address, and fun guest appearances and cameos (including by Cecilia Choi as Chit's wife, Petra Au in not one but two different roles(!), and director Adam Wong as a Japanese chef with an unusual piece de resistance!). ;b

 

My rating for this film: 7.0