‘Viva La Vida’ (2024) Netflix Movie Review - Love and Sickness

In Viva La Vida, director Han Yan puts his feet on the accelerator and drives this vehicle to the point of complete exhaustion. With the help of editor Li Yakun, Han Yan goes through his scenes with such swiftness that you find yourself panting within the first ten or twenty minutes of Viva La Vida. This pacing elevates the stressful life of Ling Min (Li Gengxi), a young woman suffering from uremia. She needs to undergo a kidney transplant surgery to save herself. Ling Min is tired of the dialysis process, but unfortunately for her, it's difficult - almost impossible - to get a healthy kidney for operation. The waiting period lasts for about eight or nine years. Ling Min has grown adept at taking care of herself. She regularly, among other things, measures her blood pressure, remains conscious about the food she is eating, and works as a social media manager for her best friend, who is preparing for her wedding (the friend tells her to post something related to food on her WeChat account). As if her health wasn't a big enough burden, Ling Min finds out that her best friend might not be perfect (she discards a bag consisting of food), and her landlord wants to sell her house. Thanks to the brisk momentum, you feel Ling Min is in a high-pressure environment. Frustrated, she sends a video (an exposition we see during the opening moments) to an online "tumor" group to find a husband/kidney donor.

Luu Tu (Peng Yuchang) sees that video before it's "recalled" by Ling Min from the group. He is also suffering from a disease: A brain tumor. Luu Tu has no problem being a husband/kidney donor for Ling Min, but he has one condition: She has to look after his mother. Yuchang's performance is in sync with the film's speedy movement. He is erratic, goofy, weird. Luu Tu smells Ling Min's body and tastes her tears with such a casual demeanor that these actions, for him, seem to be as natural as breathing in air. When you encounter someone like Luu Tu, you label them "mental." People in a restaurant give him weird looks as he does crazy things, like trying to start a fight with some men in suits. Luu Tu is a child in a man's body - he will believe in anything as long as you maintain a stern countenance. But like so many movie goofballs, he has a pure, kind heart. Ling Min is initially repulsed by Luu Tu's childish behavior. Yet, we all know that she will soon accept his offer. She will also fall in love with this eccentric person. Look under the cover of health complications, and you will discover that Viva La Vida is just another generic rom-com. Boy and girl, at first, don't like each other. The girl realizes that the boy has more emotional layers. After many hiccups, they fall in love and get married, but soon face another Big Obstacle. The couple, however, overcomes that obstacle and lives happily ever after. Oh yes, at one point in the film, an ex makes an appearance to complicate the matter. But we all know who the girl will choose as her life partner.

Viva La Vida points towards the greediness of landlords - how they ignore the troubles of sick tenants to generate profit in their business. One of them tries to breach his contract with Ling Min and causes her inconvenience by scheduling house tours with potential buyers. He also makes up a lie about having an ill mother. Ling Min catches his lie later, but there is no confrontation. She might have become fed up with the landlord, though you still wonder why, after finding that bag, she doesn't say anything to her best friend. How is she able to behave so normally in front of her? One suspects that Han Yan might have inserted that bag scene to just evoke a reaction from within us. After we become tired of the swift pace and Luu Tu's craziness, we notice that Viva La Vida is filled with repetitions. The characters make the same jokes and the same statements. After a while, we learn nothing new about them. I was quite turned off by that "funeral speech" - it's a cheap emotional trigger. What you ultimately realize is that Viva La Vida is only good for its two main characters. People with serious diseases, in real life, don't get the happy ending they deserve. Han Yan, though, provides such people with joy in his cinematic world.

Final Score- [5/10]
Reviewed by - Vikas Yadav
Follow @vikasonorous on Twitter
Publisher at Midgard Times