Love Hong Kong; Don’t Worry About ‘Tomorrow’

You won’t see a more visually rewarding movie at the Atlanta Jewish Film Festival this year than “Already Tomorrow in Hong Kong,” whose two scheduled screenings include ACCESS Night at the renovated SCADshow theater in Midtown.

The city of Hong Kong is the beautiful star and the one character sure to requite love in a tale of two beautiful people who might be perfect for each other and seem to be thrown together by fate twice — except for the sticky issue of the significant others in their lives.

Perhaps reflecting their real-life romance, stars Bryan Greenberg and Jamie Chung share a casual chemistry that makes you want them to push past the awkwardness of their chance meetings in the middle of Hong Kong, the city where their characters, Josh and Ruby, have chosen to live and work.

Writer-director Emily Ting has some fun playing against expectations: It’s Josh, the New Yorker, who knows Hong Kong inside and out and can speak Cantonese after living in the city for a decade, while Ruby, a California girl one generation removed from Hong Kong, doesn’t speak the language, know the food or music, or ever seem quite confident that she knows where she’s going.

Ting can’t resist some stereotypes — Josh is a Jewish banker, Ruby had dreams of being the next Vera Wang — but she has fun with them: Josh just wants to be a writer and responds to a few hours with Ruby by quitting the financial high life; Ruby, a toy designer, finds that cheap Chinese counterfeits are ripping off her product line.

As long as you don’t think about his girlfriend and her boyfriend, even though we’re constantly reminded about them, and as long as you don’t worry about any deep questions involving interfaith relationships, you can have fun with Josh and Ruby as they explore the city. And if the ethics of their situation get to you, as they did to me, just enjoy the film as a first-class travelogue of a fantastic city.

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