Chasing Dream

Directed by the prolific Johnnie To, Chasing Dream is a film that probably would have felt messy or overstuffed under a lesser director — but To pulls it off with aplomb. About an MMA fighter who wants to retire but is pressured by his mobster benefactor to keep fighting; meanwhile, he meets and falls in love with an aspiring singer/songwriter who wants to enter an American Idol-esque singing contest. There’s easily enough story in both plot threads for either to be their own film; it basically feels like a Rocky-esque sports movie and a movie about a singer chasing her dreams crammed into one thing. It should probably be unwieldy, but the film’s energetic charms are hard to resist. The two leads are both great and have definite chemistry, which helps — Keru Wang is thoroughly endearing as the singer, and while Jacky Heung’s odd but affable performance consists almost entirely of yelling, in the context of the film, it works. The movie is trying to do so much that the pacing can sometimes feel a bit wonky, particularly towards the end, but then it arrives at its rousing conclusion, and if you’re not won over by that, I don’t know what to tell you.

***1/2 out of ****