Director: Alfred Cheung
Year: 1995
Rating: 4.5
It’s good to see Jade Leung trying on something different here. She has painted her career into a corner by doing almost strictly action films and I would enjoy seeing her in some other types of films. There are certainly enough yuppie films coming out of HK that she could perhaps fit into. This film unfortunately is not what she needed. It has a silly verging on stupid script. The story is like an episode of Red Shoes Diary, but it has the sexual sizzle of a week old barbecue. Jade and Alfred Cheung have been married for five years and to put it mildly there is not much spark left in the marriage. Jade is made to look quite plain here in braces, glasses and frumpy clothes.
The husband is bored as hell and asks his therapist what he should do.
The therapist suggests that Alfred fool around until his life is so confusing
that the dull existence of marriage will seem more appealing! Interesting
advice from a therapist – I wonder where he received his degree - Hugh Hefner
University? At the same time Jade receives advice from a friend (Farini
Cheung) that she should get a makeover and then go out one night and see
if men find her attractive. Well, needless to say in one of those amazing
coincidences – Alfred hits on his own wife, but doesn’t recognize her. Like
Bogart said “of all the gin joints in HK”. So it goes from there. Just idiotic.
On top of this the director (Alfred as well) maintains a very static camera
and most of the scenes are filmed from a distance or in the dark and there
are very few close ups of Jade – one pleasure I always enjoy in her films
no matter how bad everything else is. Certainly the ugly duckling to swan
scenario should have given him reason to show lots of Jade looking good
- but he misses the opportunity completely. There are a few funny moments
near the end when Jade starts playing mind games with her husband, but all
in all I think I do prefer seeing Jade holding a large gun in her hand blasting
away. By the way, I have no idea what Green Hat refers to.
