Red Snow

The Gist:

Heart surgeon (Karen Mok) remains back in Tibet after her fiancé (a helicopter pilot for the China air force) dies on the day of their wedding. She goes in search of one of her patients, who has a serious heart condition. She encounters a lama (Tibetan monk) who is on his way to repay someone’s kindness and a lady who claims she remembers being in Tibet in her past life. She regularly updates her travels on her laptop and keeps following this lama. They all get stuck on the edge of a mountain in their car because of an avalanche and have to wait for rescue.

Review:

The storyline is nothing new. The main focus is on Karen Mok’s character. The writers are trying to say that Karen is so heartbroken about her fiancé’s death that she remains in Tibet. She does drastic things like going through treacherous roads, risking her life to look for her patient as her way of making up for being unable to save her fiancé. In the process of risking her life, she finds her finance’s body, so she finally can rest the hope that he will return and carry on with her life.

I would have tolerated the “same old formula” storyline except that the script is filled with cheesy lines. The movie is filled with lines like “If you don’t leave, I will jump off the cliff.” Then Karen agrees with that statement and both actors proceed to jump off the cliff.

But there are the loopholes. Take for example the girl who goes about Tibet posting on the Internet that she was there in her past life. As this girl chases after the monk, Karen’s patient chases after the girl, Karen chases after her patient, Karen’s driver chases after Karen (because the driver doesn’t want Karen to die). Karen also carries her mobile phone with her. It is unable to get any signals amid the mountains, but her battery sure lasts long. Secondly at that altitude and cold, the electrical equipment surprisingly works fine. My digital camera had problems working in the cold weather when I went to Hokkaido, yet the phone and laptop in the movie work well in sub-zero temperatures.

I rented this show because it stated that there were “natural scenic” views of Tibet. What I saw were CGs (computer graphics), lots and loads and heaps of computer graphics. I think only the scenes inside the building were filmed in a set, the others were just CGs. CGs, when done or used tastefully, add to the movie to create an interesting and wonderful scene. But the CGs used here were terrible. There was this scene where the general is speaking on the phone and you can see through his window the field where all the helicopters are lined up. But the helicopters all look like paper-cuttings of helicopters!

The only point that salvages the film would be the acting of the actors. They must have been real professionals to act in a studio and before a blue screen.

To Watch or Not to Watch:

No.