Mainland female artistes take it seriously, they don't have comedic genes
No category 2008/12/16 17:55
Three women, three personalities. In their lively worlds, they cannot live without men. However they are met with incomparable rejection and hatred. The female boss role that Kitty Zhang has is very interesting. Everyday she continues to attract men then has fun recklessly trampling their habits. Furthermore she enjoys it and never becomes tired of doing this. She is very aware of her capitalism and dominance. She has already perfected this gift of hers, living life without constraints. Zhou Xun acts as a female doctor who is very passionate towards men, will show them the rigidity and coldness of her body and mind. She doesn't know how to be more assertive and doesn't have any confidence, trusting only the pheromones of love. As to Kwai Lun-mei's strong character, she is very much like an uncivilised girl who has forgotten her identity and gender. All day by the means of mixed-up activities and lack of schedules, she does various irregular actions. They all have their own understanding of love, but still haven't found the love that will cause they to become anxious.
It could be said that the ideas about men and love that these three women have, all have their extreme characteristics. At the same time they also have strong utopian ideals. As to whether they are looking for love or discovering love, you could say they are saving themselves from their career as a "remaining girl" in a crisis environment. Just like fighting a battle of no return, entering a war of enormous strength like "Warlords" and "Assembly", walking a path of no return. Through a lighthearted storyline, a rich awareness of crisis as well as a touch of sadness will make people ponder being able to feel some emotions afterwards. You will discover that all the absurdities are created equally by life and also that life cannot bring the craziness of falling in love for the first time everyday and also cannot predict your ending because that would be cruel.
This movie looks closely at our ideal visions of love, the aim is, an approach towards the process and existence of choices that are on the verge of craziness. The ideas of love created by these three relationships will stun people, almost denoucing all ideals of love and also portrays it as what causes a person to be on the brink of survival. Korean screenwriter KwakJaeyong who is full of spirit doesn't seem to be talking about any romance but rather, is using a series of incredible stories to denounce a person's mid-life crisis. Mid-life crisis, how can Tsui Hark say it isn't? If he says so, then it is so! In fact, all first loves are that beautiful. Then at the end a person's spirit is stranded, like taking a drug, like the weakness of being in love created by pheromones, like the instability of wearing high heels, like the unreliable rise and fall of the economic crisis.
The film's structure is very delicate. If you break it down carefully, it has a rather refined, clever structure - even though the concept is ridiculous and the style is at times very powerful and unconstrained. Sure enough KwakJaeyong is a genius, but is also clever in trivial matters - the typical subversion of an uncivilised girl still remains. On the other hand Tsui Hark uses tacit understanding to create this crazy love story. He uses a comedic style different from his previous films to show respect for the original screenwriter and present a fine film. If the stage dialogue was more colourful and had more Mainland speech, I think the result would be even better. Previously in the script, the connections were very complicated and seemed excessively long-winded. Also, the climax in the film's middle and ending, is definitely rich and powerful enough but also slightly obstructive. If some was omitted and the pace was sped up, perhaps the result would have been better.
As to the acting, all three actresses have their own beauty and spotlight - none is stronger than the others. As Kwai Lun-Mei's character suited her, the result was slightly better while Kitty Zhang and Zhou Xun were not as lively, their acting was too heavy and lacked some spirit. Perhaps this is why most Hong Kong directors criticise Mainland actresses for lacking comedic genes, this has been a problem for a very long time and would therefore be difficult to resolve.
The film's biggest focus is probably Eddie Peng. To say the truth, in the film he is the only actor who can exemplify the real spirit of a comedy. He doesn't have much actions but has all kinds of smaller parts, enough to accumulate a lot of popularity and earn praise. Very often, he reminds us of Cha Tae-hyun who endures love and sufferings. Even though his role is not big, he still steals the uncivilised image from the three actresses.
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