A mostly forgotten early entry in Chow Yun-Fat's filmography, Dream Lovers offers up a unique take on the usual Hong Kong romantic film, and looks wonderful while doing so. Unfortunately, even with all the positive aspects the movie has going for it, the proceedings end up feeling a bit too hollow in the end.

In the movie, Chow plays Song, a conductor who has moved to Hong Kong with his girlfriend, Wah (Cher Yeung). Almost right away, he is haunted by dreams and visions of a beautiful woman dressed in garb from the Qin dynasty, some 2000 years ago. One day, while perusing an exhibition of the famous terracotta warriors -- not coincidentally also from the Qin era -- he runs into Cheung (Brigitte Lin), who looks exactly like the woman from his dreams. The two discover that they were married in a past life, and things did not end well. Will matters repeat themselves in the modern age?

This question forms the crux of Dream Lovers, and at times, the film is an interesting meditation upon life and love, anchored by solid performances from Chow Yun-Fat, Brigitte Lin, and especially Cher Yeung, who makes the most out of what could have very well been a throwaway role. It was nice seeing Lin -- normally known for her roles like the Swordsman movies, where she perfected the art of the icy stare -- crack a genuine smile at times. However, Dream Lovers too often falls victim to its' own ennui, with far too many scenes of the characters sitting around wallowing in their own misery while nothing of importance is actually going on.

I will grant that this sort of film-making is very subjective to the viewer. At times, one might want to wallow in a pit of sorrow for ninety minutes, and something like Dream Lovers would definitely fit the bill in that case. However, at this particular point in time for this particular reviewer, the depressing nature of the lives of the characters overpowered the production as a whole, making the film a chore to sit through at points. Perhaps I wasn't appreciative enough of the film-making style of Tony Au -- as great-looking as it is -- but, in the end, Dream Lovers came off as more of arthouse pandering than a true directorial effort, and by the time the movie ended, I was more than ready to hit the eject button.

RATING: 6