Review | Bound in Heaven movie review: Ni Ni plays domestic abuse victim in doomed romance drama
Ni Ni excels as Xia You, whose partner (Liao Fan) physically abuses her, and who falls in love with the terminally ill Xu Zitai (Zhou You)
3/5 stars
Its melodramatic story, set partly in the central Chinese city of Wuhan, wraps domestic abuse and terminal illness inside a passionate romance between two star-crossed lovers.
Bound in Heaven was recently screened at international film festivals in both Toronto, Canada, and San Sebastian, Spain; it is set to open in Chinese cinemas on November 1.
Beginning in 2010, this is the story of Xia You (a charismatic Ni Ni), a well-to-do woman who works in investment but whose life is anything but easy. Her fiancé (Liao Fan) is violent and overpowering. “Don’t smear my make-up,” she says, in the bathroom, knowing a beating is coming. He can’t control himself, she will later reason.
She finds a lifeline when she meets Xu Zitai (Zhou You), a ticket scalper who, in a dreamily romantic gesture, gives her a leg-up to peek through a window at a Faye Wong concert she is missing.
