Depending on who you ask, the answer to the question “what is best in life?” will range from inner peace to financial prosperity to crushing your enemies and hearing the lamentations of the women. The last one is more for Cimmerian barbarians, but the first two are more common to the average individual so much so that storytellers have been rolling over this question for generations. The latest to posit this question is director/actor Stanley Wong in his feature-film directorial debut Future Date, a sci-fi romantic comedy set in an ecologically-wrecked future. One wouldn’t think that would be the best setting for a rom-com, yet doing so generates a precise focus for the story that follows and opportunities for clever invention.
A scene from FUTURE DATE. Photo courtesy of Stanley Wong.
In an undisclosed future, the ecosystem is destroyed and most humans live in individual pods where they simultaneously work and live. Ry (Wong) longs for more out of his lonely existence, wanting to make a connection that will last forever. Ria (Shuang Hu) wants nothing more than to move from her pod into a house, but with real estate at a premium, she’d need to either finally earn a promotion or win a contest. Luckily for both Ry and Ria, a contest from an online dating service offers both lifelong companionship and a house to a couple deemed totally compatible and, even luckier, the two are selected. But what they want and what they find put them at a crossroads that may make winning the contest an impossibility.
The script by Patrick T. Dorsey (Endzgiving) is deceptively straight-forward: the world’s gone to hell, people are isolated in pods but connected via technology, and options seem pretty narrow. This sets up various situations which one will presume to know the outcome as the characters begin in obvious diametric opposition. That the film starts to incorporate talking head interview style couple conversations between scenes well after the introduction even further implies a certain rote narrative pathway as it apes When Harry Met Sally… (1989) one of the most beloved will-they/won’t-they rom-coms in cinema. While this may serve as the framework, the road employs several inventive choices that enable Wong and Dorsey to create their own unique perspective. For one, both Ry and Ria are presented as in virtual therapy, implying that these characters recognize the seriousness of their respective isolation (thereby amplifying through subtext how lonely existing in this world must be) while also establishing a sense of normalcy around going to therapy. This same choice also helps illustrate that both characters are interested in self-improvement, even if they also engage in self-sabotage through selective hearing, a most human choice. This sets up the possibility of growth and change even before the two meet each other which is important because, with a runtime under 90 minutes, this economical approach allows the characters to spend time where it matters.
L: Stanley Wong as Ry in FUTURE DATE. Photo courtesy of Stanley Wong.
Future Date is likewise straight-forward because we know that the two characters are going to meet and their selection in the contest is unsurprising. Like any rom-com, the key figures have to meet and go on an adventure together in order to determine if they are fated or star-crossed. The deception, if you will, is in how Dorsey creates the opportunities for the pair to mingle, the way in which Wong as director stages things, and how Wong and Hu bring these moments to life. A wonderful example of this is what it means for the characters to be participants in the contest and how the contest itself is executed. Bear in mind that, even before the pair arrive in the home that serves as the possible prize, there’s a brief animated sequence involving props that would make the original Star Wars (1977) proud for the minimalist approach, even if it’s obviously all handmade. This choice infuses the film with a whimsy that the more technological-based effects do not. Back on track, when at the home, Dorsey puts the characters into a group project wherein Ry and Ria are tasked with completing activities to rate their compatibility. In terms of tension raising, this means that every conversation, every physical response, every emotional reaction, carries weight in several ways in-film and out. Smartly, each one takes full advantage of the co-leads’ physical comedy capabilities and leans on the absurd nature of living in isolation as a way to utilize the loss of physical touch, clear communication, and general social customs (from handshakes to cooking) to generate obstacles these two must overcome. On the one hand, this keeps the stakes fairly low and the execution simple for a independent film; however, on the other, it’s a creative method of articulating just how important socialization is for individuals, thereby creating opportunities for both laughter at the ridiculousness of it (absurd to us now as these are average things yet monumental to them) and real pathos as the pair come to realize just how much of a divide exists between them.
The script and effects are only part of the equation, though. Everything hinges on Wong and Hu’s ability to make us *believe* in who they are and what they want. Gratefully, given the small ensemble of central characters, they meet the need. As Ry, Wong is love-sick without being creepy, desperate for connection without being a walking red flag, and eager to please without making your skin crawl. Wong’s Ry carries himself as one who seeks to cause no harm and who sees every potential romantic partner as an opportunity to find “the one.” While this immediacy and kind-heartedness is sweet, it also implies a level of uncertainty of self, which Wong also demonstrates without turning Ry’s green flag red. Likewise, Hu has the difficult task of making Ria’s self-proclaimed workaholic into a similar stereotype that Won has to avoid with Ry. Hu presents Ria as self-contained due to experience with poor interpersonal communication thereby crafting a persona that controls what she can and discards the rest. In both cases, each actor quickly establishes their respective character as a mostly-full person whose needs are more intrinsic than extrinsic, which also makes the journey we join them for far more satisfying.
L-R: Shuang Hu as Ria and Stanley Wong as Ry in FUTURE DATE. Photo courtesy of Stanley Wong.
Unlike most other reviews running on Elements of Madness, Future Date is not something you need to wait to see. Fresh off of its festival runs, it released on Prime Video, Google Play, and YouTube in December 2024 and is now streaming on free service Tubi, so it’s really up to you how, when, where, and with whom you see the film. Given its familiar setup and inventive execution, Future Date is a crowd-pleaser that delivers all you expect from a title within the rom-com genre and does so in several ways you won’t. Some of this is due to the script, but so much of it is the execution of Wong’s vision, making the film something of a calling card that makes one curious for what’s next.
Available on Prime Video, Google Play, and YouTube December 23rd, 2024.
For more information, head to the official Future Date linktree.
Final Score: 4 out of 5.
Leave a Reply