30-04-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
Vital Signs movie review: Louis Koo, Neo Yau play ambulance paramedics in wistful drama
3.5/5 stars
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In Vital Signs, the converging career paths of two ambulance paramedics at very different stages in their lives provide the unusual backdrop for a soul-searching drama rooted in today's Hong Kong, with characters pondering the essence of home as they reluctantly face a wave of emigration from the city.
The fourth feature by writer-director Cheuk Wan-chi and her first since the 2014 comedy
Temporary Family , Vital Signs comes across as a notably more mature work by the multi-hyphenate who is also known as a stand-up comedian – even if its themes are not always as tightly woven as they could be.
When we first meet
Louis Koo Tin-lok 's veteran ambulanceman Ma Chi-yip, he is not responding to emergencies at some chaotic disaster scene but quietly fielding the latest appeal from his visiting parents-in-law to join them in Toronto with his young daughter, Bonnie (Ariel So Yuet-yin,
Warriors of Future ).
'This is not a great place for Bonnie to grow up in', says one of them while nodding towards the window of Ma's apartment in fire service quarters, referring to the city at large; Vital Signs was shot in 2021 – and an inferior version premiered at festivals in 2023 – but its social sentiments remain relevant.
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Ma is a broken man who, apart from having a bad back, is still reeling from the death of his wife years ago. At work the widower displays a remarkable ability to save lives, a casual disregard for protocols and a near-insolent attitude towards bureaucracy.
