Review | Vital Signs movie review: Louis Koo, Neo Yau play ambulance paramedics in wistful drama

3.5/5 stars

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.

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.

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