A love triangle involving a young man and two girls is a very common film topic. But the story is likely to be more unusual if the man’s two lovers, one existing in real life and the other in his imagination, happen to be the same girl. In the film Beyond the Dream, this is what happens to Ah Lok, a patient suffering from delusional disorder, who craves for and experiences true love. The film, in fact, tells a unique love story, which keeps the audience emotionally engaged throughout.
Ah Lok is a primary school sports teach- er. On regular medication, he is a well-liked young man full of vitality. But when his con- dition gets out of control, strange things can happen; he cannot tell the difference between what is real and what is imagined. And what triggers this can be a disturbing incident, such as the one that occurs on the street at the be- ginning of the film – also when and where Ah Lok first encounters the girl.
Making frequent use of big close-up shots, the director wants to impress the characters’ inner feelings upon the audience, such as Ah Lok’s helplessness when drifting in and out of half-awake hallucinations, Yip Nam’s happi- ness when she feels Ah Lok’s love, and the pro- fessor’s disappointment at Yip Nam’s determi- nation to give up her doctorate studies.
There is also an emphasis placed on the relationship between humans and the en- vironment. The repeated top-view shot of the spiral staircase implies that a patient of mental disorder often finds himself subject to confinement. The same effect is also achieved with the scattered shots of the subway and the cruciform block of the public housing estate. In addition, a light rail station appears several times, highlighting Ah Lok’s feeling of lone- liness amidst the commuters hurrying past him. Moreover, the blurred shots imply doubt as to whether it is reality or imagination, com- parable to Ah Lok’s actual state of mind.
Above all, as the director remarks in an in- terview, the film is telling a love story. It deliv- ers the message that patients of mental disor- ders are humans just like any of us. They also crave love and are capable of true love. And, while Ah Lok is participating in the counsel- ling project, we the audience can join him, as we also need counselling about genuine love, sacrificial love and accepting love.
