My Heart will Go On
Director: Choi Ming-git
Year: 1999
Rating: 5.5
When viewing this film one
has to be a little careful – look the wrong way and you could trip over a
cliché and possibly hurt yourself. Even though I can’t remember
exactly where, it just felt like there were many scenes that seemed all too
familiar. The director threw a whole lot of clichés into a pot and
hoped for the best. I think there was potential – but weak performances from
the male leads and dreadful dialogue sink this film into a morass of mediocrity.
At one point in the
film Lawrence Ng turns to his cop partner and tells him to watch more films
so that he will be able to solve more cases. Well, if some of the characters
in the film had watched more movies then they would not have acted so stupidly.
A few film lessons learned from HK films that were not applied. If you are
a chemist who is mixing poisonous gas for an obvious psycho and he says thank
you for your work and leaves you a wrapped present it might would be a good
idea to run like hell as soon as he is gone. The chances are it is not a
Hermes tie.
If you are a professional
killer and decide to retire – don’t let your boss know and then tell him
he owes you money. Chances are pretty good he will try and pay you off with
something else. Try and get your money first and then send him a postcard
from Rio telling him that you are out of the business. Conversely if you
are a contractor of a hired killer – just pay him off and don’t get him irritated
at you. Remember that the reason that you hired him in the first place is
that he is a much better killer than anyone on your staff is. The chances
are they won’t succeed in killing him and you will find yourself on the wrong
end of a gun very soon.
All these and other
silly plot points occur in this film. They are trying so hard for a romantic
heroic bloodshed film, but don’t get any of it quite right. The film begins
with Nicky Wu (who is not a big favorite of mine – he basically had Charlie
Yeung carry him through his two big hits) delivering room service in a hotel.
He is saying to himself “I’ve had many jobs over the last few years, but
this one has lasted the longest so far.” Before you have a chance to be happy
for him – the door opens – and Nicky has killed everyone inside with a fork.
Terrible dinner etiquette. It turns out that it was not a bad tip that
caused this, but the fact that Nicky is a professional killer. He wants to
get out of the biz though – the short hours and good pay is getting to him
– plus the fact that he has a bad heart. Literally. He actually has a pretty
good heart for a killer.
Soon Lawrence Ng is
on his trail and he begins to close in. He is engaged to the enchanting Ada
Choi. He is called away from having wedding pictures taken (another bad sign
in the world of movies) and arrests Nicky. The gang that Nicky belongs to
tries to kill him, but instead kills Ng. Nicky collapses too as his heart
gives out. Guess what happens next? You would be correct if you said he gets
Ng’s heart through a transplant and then mysteriously knows Ng’s computer
password and then starts to like his taste in drinks . . . and women. One
day he walks past Ada and stops - "do I know you from someplace?" Many clichés
later the film ends.
I continue to hope that
Ada Choi will get a good role one of these days in a good film. She does
as much as she can with this one – as she is able to actually wring some
emotion out of it and make me care about her. Her face is like a flawless
diamond and the slightest change in light or angle brings out a new emotion
and a new side to her beauty. By the way, she and Nicky Wu are an item in
real life, but I can only hope they have better chemistry off screen than
they do on screen.