Whatever You Want

 
Director: Wong Jing
Year: 1994
Rating: 7.0
Don’t worry too much about the fact that this film has both Michael Wong and Christy Chung in it - equally famous for their lack of acting talent and their ability to butcher the Chinese language. That’s because Anita Yuen owns this Wong Jing film. Nearly every frame of the film resonates with her presence. Now if you don’t like Anita - this film is definitely not for you. I do like her though, especially when she plays one of her slightly off-kilter sprite like characters. Here her face is like on rushing traffic - constantly changing expression from cute to crazed to wacky to sexy to . . . you name it - all in a blink of the eye. It’s a face I quite enjoy watching. The film itself is fairly standard and it is primarily the charming performance of Anita and a few very funny film parodies that push this from almost mediocre into something nearly delicious. Towards the end of the film, Wong Jing loses his focus and nearly ruins the fairy tale quality of the film - but the last scenes redeem it. Anita’s character is a dizzy, but lovable soul - unable to hold a job down - constantly daydreaming - staying up all night watching movies (sounds good to me) until her father sets her up in the advertising company of her half sister - Christy Chung. I should explain that her father has eight wives (I’m tired just thinking about that) and Anita has never met her half sister. Christy is everything Anita is not - driven, confident and successful. Jordan Chan is Anita’s direct boss and the two of them develop a likable chemistry on screen. To make this short - eventually into Anita’s possession comes three pearls that turn out to have a genie residing in them - Michael Wong - and he grants Anita three wishes. If it was me - Maggie, Chingmy and Nina Li might figure into my three wishes - but that would be another story! 

Instead, Anita wants to use one wish to help her sister. Christy has confided that her ideal man is a “disposable one” - she wants a handsome man who will vanish after impregnating her. No muss, no fuss. A Michael Wong genie sort of fits that description. Complications ensue.



As I mentioned earlier there are a few movie parodies - Speed, Chungking Express and Ashes of Time - were three that I recognized. The one of Ashes is a classic - very funny and on target - even to a big fan of the movie like me.  Picture Leslie Cheung giving one of his heartfelt monologues about moving to the desert to a cow.
 


Though the film lags a bit near the end, there is a lot here to enjoy in a fairly mindless fun way. For a Wong Jing film it is quite sedate for the most part - with a few obligatory tasteless moments - but an easy confection to munch on.