This is Michelle Yeoh’s
least known film from her D&B days. I’d never been in any real hurry
to see it because of a number of negative things that I had heard about it.
But it is still Michelle so at some point it was necessary viewing for me.
This film was made after Yes Madam and Royal Warriors and Michelle had been
pretty banged up in those films. If you have seen them, you can quite understand.
So her future husband – the head of D&B Dickson Poon - gives her a bit
of a holiday with this film. She has no fighting scenes and gets to do a
lot of sightseeing. Lucky Michelle gets to ski in Switzerland, hang glide
in the French countryside, race cars through Paris, ride horses in England
and swim in the Greek islands. Somewhere in there she somehow finds time
to steal money from an armored car in HK.
This film is basically a remake of the American film The Thomas Crowne Affair
that starred Steve McQueen and Faye Dunaway. At one point in fact a
clip from this film is shown to help solve the case! Here though the genders
are switched around as Michelle plays the wealthy thief and George Lam plays
the insurance investigator. As much as they attempt to capture the chemistry
and sophistication of the original, they fall woefully short. If you have
never caught the Thomas Crowne Affair – you should – it is a wonderful film
with two high voltage stars. But if not, the plot of both films is about a
wealthy individual who plans out and executes robberies as a hobby. The assistants
are recruited anonymously and thus can never identify the head. An insurance
investigator realizes who is behind the robbery but starts becoming romantically
attracted to them.
There are a number of things going against this film. First there is no
spark or sexual tension between the two leads. I continue to find Lam as
interesting as a bag of stale peanuts. His popularity back in the 80’s is
a total mystery to me and he sleepwalks through this one. Michelle was not
ready for this role yet. I could see her doing it now – she would be wonderful
– but she was much too young for it then and was honestly not a good enough
actress at the time to pull this role off. Finally the script itself is very
weak and creates practically no excitement – not even the robbery itself
or the investigation. Kent Cheng also has a solid role as the brutal cop
who works with Lam in trying to track Michelle down. I really can’t
recommend the film except to those who need to see all of Michelle Yeoh’s
work or enjoy seeing her in a myriad of chic outfits!
