The Soong Sisters
Director: Mabel Cheung
Year: 1997
Rating: 7.5
I approached this
film with some trepidation as I didn't really know what to expect. Generally,
there are very few film bios that I have liked - if they stray too far from
the truth it annoys me, but if they follow the truth too closely they are
likely to be quite dull. But with Michelle Yeoh and Maggie Cheung in it,
I felt I was duty bound to watch it. Now since I actually know next to nothing
about the lives of the Soong Sisters I have no idea if this movie came anywhere
close to following the truth or not. I have read about the cuts the director
was forced to make to keep the Chinese government happy - primarily concerning
Madame Chang. For the most part the Communists are barely in the movie and
are generally treated sympathetically. Chang Kai Shek gets treated much worse
than they do. Sun Yat Sen gets the most respect. This was as a reminder 1997,
the year of the Hand Over and all the Hong Kong studios were being quite
cautious in their treatment of the Mainland.
At any rate, for the most part I quite
enjoyed this movie - it had some wonderful, powerful scenes - though at other
times it dragged (it’s nearly 2 ½ hours long). And I kept waiting
for Anita Mui (Wonder Woman) to show up and help Maggie and Michelle but
she never does! In some ways it reminded me of those old Hollywood bios where
they begin with a character dying as an old person and then flash back to
their childhood and go from there. For the most part the movie focuses on
Maggie as Ching-Ling wife of Sun Yat Sen. She has a great part and is wonderful
in it. Some beautiful close-ups of her show she is only getting more beautiful
as she gets older. Then later the film shifts to Madame Chang played by Vivian
Wu. Vivian plays her almost as a giggly schoolgirl though that is certainly
not the image that I ever had of her - more like tough as nails. Poor Michelle
really gets the shaft in this movie as her character just marries some rich
schmuck (now if she had married Mao!) and she is almost treated as wallpaper
in this film.
The one main criticism I have is that the
movie just sort of peters out - maybe they were running low on money - and
the whole Chinese Civil War and retreat to Taiwan and all that happens afterwards
is covered in about 2 minutes. There were other parts that could have gotten
treated with a little more time such as Maggie’s flight of 40 days to find
her husband. That could have been a movie by itself and it gets 3 minutes
of screen time, but I guess when you cover so much material - 3 lives and
many years - it is impossible to do it justice. This story needs a mini-series
and likely there has been one. Anyway, I would certainly recommend this -
not with total enthusiasm, but as something that is different and interesting
and for a near perfect performance from Maggie. It is directed by Mabel Cheung
and also has Winston Chao, Jiang Wen and Elaine Kam in the cast.
To see some pictures of the real life Soong sisters - click here
