The Enigma of Love
Director: Sherman Wong
Year: 1993
Rating: 5.0
Only the fairly good
performances from Maggie Cheung and Jacky Cheung make this absurd melodrama
at all watchable. The story line is extremely feeble right to the end. Jacky is
the manager of a gigolo bar in Hong Kong. Nice work if you can get it. Women
– married and single - come to the bar for a little relaxation, romance and
more so if they desire it. It costs them money of course, but all the good
things in life do. If males can frequent places like this, why not females?
The police take a different view and they
attempt unsuccessfully to shut down the bar. So the police turn to Maggie,
a tough as nails cop, to help them out. In her first raid, she throws one
fellow through a glass door, knocks another one out and chases a third fellow
up a building wall and then jumps off it with him – like Mel Gibson in Lethal
Weapon.
Jacky, was away at the time of the raid – so Maggie doesn’t know who he
is – decides to get revenge on her. His plan is to romance her and then make
a fool of her. So he pretends to be a dying painter and slowly burrows his
way into her heart. Only one little kink in his plan. As any of us men could
have told him – to know Maggie is to love Maggie and sure enough he falls
for her. Now how do I tell her that I am actually not dying, am not a painter
and woo women for a living? That’s a tough one. As one of the gigolos tells
Jacky “Love is a game which you can’t control”. Sort of like my tennis serve
I guess.
To add to this dilemma is that Maggie’s supervisor
(Wilson Lam) has developed a bit of a crush on her and doesn’t take rejection
too well.
And that’s about it. Not exactly a run to
your video store for film. But if you have thought about going into the gigolo
business, this might be a useful primer for you!
