chawke-1 Review of A Man Like Me

A Man Like Me (2002)

Great movie -- worth setting time aside to watch

[9/10 · 14 October 2009]

... In the rarely seen Icelandic movie A Man Like Me, the audience will laugh out loud amid the breakdown and aftermath of the relationship. The 2002 film is director Robert Douglas's most commercially successful. He also met his future wife, a Chinese-born woman, on the set. But the film is refreshingly free of Orientalist clichés, perhaps because the leading woman's character was originally conceived as a Pole. Douglas tells the Global Times that filmmakers decided to cast the role with a Hong Kong actress Stephanie Che so could widen the commercial appeal of the film. Douglas said they also wanted to visit a more exotic location than Poland. In the opening scene, the main character reveals on a televised dating show that his longest ever relationship ended after just three months when he found a used prophylactic in his bed. The waitresses at his regular Chinese restaurant where he often eats tease him about being famous. Júlli agrees to help paint the house of the main love interest, Qi, and he meets her daughter. A montage of syrupy moments backed by a romantic songs shows the couple falling in love. This scene is a homage to cheesy Hong Kong romantic comedies, Douglas says. Júlli asks Qi to marry him, and in a twist, she says no, asking him if he thinks she needs a visa. Júlli is devastated, and the two stop talking. To cheer up, Júlli quits his job, gets a new haircut and clothes, and starts selling a health supplement as part of a pyramid scheme. He fails miserably. The only customer is his father, a musician with a single hit record twenty years before that won a "Silver Cassette" for selling 2,500 copies. The father dreams of representing Iceland in the annual Eurovision music contest. Qi returns to China to care for her sick mother, and Júlli follows, intending to profess his love for her. When he arrives at her village in Guangdong, he sees her with her ex-husband, and returns home in despair. The film ends with Júlli and Qi having a chance meeting. They have a pleasant formal conversation, and promise to meet again for coffee. Neither of them acknowledge the fact that she is many months pregnant. Júlli's father, meanwhile, gets rich selling the nutritional supplement to U.S. soldiers based in Iceland and has a second rise to fame, representing Iceland in the Eurovision competition.... A Man Like Me is the precise kind of film that people attend independent screenings to see – intelligent, funny, movie, and unknown to most people outside of Iceland, where it was a money-making hit....