Is there a message present in Sound of Colors? Based on my viewing, it would probably be that blind people see the world in LSD-drenched day-glo swaddled Yellow Submarine reguritations. And, oh yeah, they need love too. But seeing as this is a Lunar New Year romantic comedy, which are usually as light and fluffy as a bag of cotton candy, your grizzled neighborhood reviewer is probably reading too much into the proceedings.

The blind person in question is Cheung (Miriam Yeung), a young woman who is being simulataneously scammed and romanced by Ho (Tony Leung Chiu-Wai), who runs a struggling match-making service. After drinking some tainted grape juice, Ho loses his sight as well, which makes his bond with Cheung grow stronger. Yes, you read that right. Tainted grape juice. Obviously, Sound of Colors is not the sort of movie you're going to want to watch if you're a nit-picker or are in the mood for anything deep.

For how shallow this movie is, like many Lunar New Year films, Sound of Colors gets by on its' star power. "Little Tony" is an actor who tends to be more associated with his dramatic roles, but he's always had a great flair for comedy, and he shows that here, being very likeable in a rougish kind of way. Some praise must also be given to Miriam Yeung for her performance. She is normally one of my least favorite actors, especially in these types of roles, when she tends to overact (to put it gently). But she puts in some actual acting work here, making Cheung into a real character, instead of simply someone having their lines read by Miriam Yeung.

Unfortunately, though, as good as the interaction between Tony and Miriam is, Sound of Colors loses its' focus with a set of sub-stories, which were obviously inserted to try and attract audiences from Taiwan and Mainland China. This sort of gimmick is very commonplace with Lunar New Year movies, which feature a lot of stunt casting that will thrill local audiences, but will most likely leave foreigners cold. Sure, everything ends up inter-relating with each other, but the stings holding the stories are so thin, the various tales still feel like they were slapped together in the editing room from separate movies ala those wacky Godfrey Ho ninja pictures from the 1980's.

RATING: 5