‘Love in Space” is just what movie fans have been waiting for: a romantic comedy from Communist China. We’re used to seeing Chinese costume dramas with Gong Li and action thrillers in which warlords do battle on horseback. But a Hollywood-esque rom-com set in China? That’s a surprise.
The story revolves around an up-to-date, middle-class family. May (Yu Fan) is a widow with three grown daughters who are successful in all aspects of their lives except romance. The oldest, Rose (Rene Liu), is an astronaut floating through the universe in a space station with a man who just happens to be one of her ex-lovers.
The middle daughter, germaphobic Lily (Gwen Lun Mei), studies art in Sydney, Australia, and has just embarked on a relationship with a garbage man’s son. The baby of the family, actress Peony (the singly named Angelababy), takes a job as a waitress to research her next role.
With the exception of the intergalactic twist — which includes an homage to Stanley Kubrick’s “2001: A Space Odyssey” — there’s little new in “Love in Space.” Directors Wing Shya and Tony Chan seem content with a cliched plot and stereotypical characters. Unless you’ve been stranded in space for several decades, it won’t take long to figure out how the movie will end.