“似是故人來” (It Is As If an Old Friend Has Returned) is a popular song by Anita Mui, the theme song of the 1992 movie Twin Bracelets (雙鐲).
“似是故人來” (It Is As If an Old Friend Has Returned) is a popular song by Anita Mui, the theme song of the 1992 movie Twin Bracelets (雙鐲). Its lyrics match the story of the film, which revolves around two girls, Xiu gu and Hui hua, close friends since childhood who become blood sisters, exchange matching bracelets, and promise to keep each other company forever. Disgusted by the loss of freedom and by the brutal treatment most girls her age face after marriage, Xiu becomes more reliant on Hui each day, until her love for Hui is no longer strictly platonic. Hui, however, becomes more attached to her husband after marriage, and is somewhat unsettled by Xiu’s growing interest in her. Xiu mistakes Hui’s distance as a kind of betrayal and plans to commit suicide after murdering Hui, but Xiu eventually come to terms with her naiveté and realizes that her childhood “engagement” was nothing but a game. Traumatized by this painful epiphany, Xiu drowns herself in the sea.
The movie was rather groundbreaking, addressing lesbianism and the banality of arranged marriage, and the song conveys similar sentiments. The subject matter is quite philosophical and the beauty of the lyrics lies in its ambiguity and subtlety. Listeners are made to contemplate the mysterious forces of life and the often unforeseeable parallels between relationships. The lyrics also play around with the concept of the “double,” echoing the dynamics established between different pairs in the movie, and explain how destiny has a way of afflicting its prisoners. These intriguing thoughts are embedded in the soulful lyrics crafted by Lin Xi.
The song also contains references to Bian Zhilin’s poem “斷章” (Duan Zhang), which has only four lines, “你站在橋上看風景，看風景人在樓上看你。明月裝飾了你的窗子，你裝飾了別人的夢,” though its implications are worth a thousand words, as it explores the fascinating relationship possibly shared between observer and observed. Every person has been assigned a fixed role in life, and his or her fate is, regrettably, inescapable. As the song puts it, “台下你望台上我做 你想做的戲” (You, in the audience, looking at me on the stage, while I’m performing a drama you wish you could have starred in). For sure, there are times when one wants to swap bodies with another actor or develop a relationship with a special someone, but life sabotages and upsets one’s hopes: “恨台上卿卿或台下我我 不是我跟你” (What a pity you and me can never act lovingly as the couple on/off stage). In reality, the one with whom you wish to spend your life with may not reciprocate your feelings, and there’s nothing you can do about it.
The song’s theme of “doubling” is accentuated by duplicated characters: “雙雙﹑對對﹑點點﹑連連”. In Chinese, rhythm can also be produced through this rhetorical technique, which is also just another feature of the language. Mui’s low registers and deep voice reinforce the melancholy. The song deserves several listens, perhaps at different stages in one’s life, in order to savor the bitterness of the lyrics, which grow only more palpable with the passage of time.
