The Modern Love
Director: David Lam
Year: 1994
Rating: 7.0/7.0
It’s not only fantasy
and action films from HK in which the viewer sometimes has to suspend their
belief a bit – but even sometimes in a simple romantic comedy exploring love
in modern day HK. The basic foundation of this film is a bit ridiculous
as it is about three modern women who are roommates looking for love and
sex – and not necessarily in that order.
But what is so absurd is the chances of this threesome actually being friends
and roommates. Chingmy Yau plays an engaged woman just returned from France
and working at a sex clinic giving out advice on birth control and keeping
the hubby sexually stimulated. If you look like Chingmy of course that is
not a big problem! Another roommate is played by Anita Lee – an insurance
salesperson – who goes through men like quarters at a slot machine. Only one
night is her motto and hopefully even less than that! And the final roommate
– Lily Chung – is also in the sex field – but somewhat differently – as she
spends much of it on her back! She is a prostitute and seems quite happy with
her work. Hey, how many jobs do you get to lie down on? Yes- just your typical
three single girls in the big city – almost reminded me of Mary Tyler Moore
and Rhoda!
There are a number of amusing incidents for
the first half of the film – and though it is as fluffy as a down pillow
– it is quite watchable. Chingmy looks both extremely cute and lovely here
– and there are a number of very nice close-ups of her face. Lily Chung
is quite adorable as a muddled-headed girl with good business instincts.
From her filmography it appears that she has been primarily in Cat III films
and I want to follow-up on a few of those. Anita Lee is also very attractive
and has a few spicy scenes.
You know it is only a matter of time though before some fellows show up
for the girls to get serious about and when that happens the film starts
to fizzle a bit. The girls were a lot more funny before they fell in love.
Chingmy starts to forget about that fellow in France and moons over Mark
Cheng – who is a triad member – every girl’s dream. Ya – forget about that
good looking guy in France with all the money and instead run after a low
level triad member who is in hiding for fear for his life! But he is nice
to his mother and that’s what counts! Lily gets involved with Lawrence Cheng
– doing his typical nerdish role – who is shocked to find out at some point
that she is not a secretary. Oh, did I mention he is not too bright either
– but it is amazing what a man will forgive if a woman is well endowed! And
Anita meets fashion designer Sunny Chan and decides that one nighters are
no longer fashionable – what a woman will sacrifice for nice clothes!
All in all this is a cute little film with a serious message – fooling around
and being a prostitute is fun for a while – but sooner or later – traditional
values will draw you women back to being a one man woman. Remember that sage
advice girls! Just kidding.
My rating for this film: 7.0
Reviewed by YTSL
Although it starts off with Chingmy Yau's character
-- a marriage counselor often respectfully referred to as Miss Chung --
making some tart yet surely quite "spot on" comments regarding the contemporary
state of gender relations and perceptions in Hong Kong, movies don't really
come much fluffier than this romantic comedy. A measure of how silly
and light-hearted is THE MODERN LOVE -- as Brian has pointed out in his review
-- can be seen in the extremely high improbability of real life characters
like the three female protagonists happily sharing an apartment and going
out together for nights on the town. Ditto with regards to their potential
Mr. Rights coming in the respective forms of: A filial triad member
who remains the apple of his mother's eye; an uptight millionaire who needs
to be taught how to "wa-ha-ha" laugh; and a young man with a roving eye.
And then there's the rather conventional conclusion to this ultimately charming
and cute rather than risqué movie about "modern love"...
I'm not sure I can adequately explain why this
1994 offering succeeded in putting this (re)viewer in such a good, tolerant
and fun(ny) mood that she was filled with mirth rather than irritated by
this offering's fractured and often nonsensical English subtitles (If my
memory serves me right, the male reproductive organ was at one point referred
to as a "ball stick"! Plus there's the attempted translation and consequent
misspelling of a particular word as "concuspicent"!!). Something else
to factor in is my willingness to overlook, rather than feel put-off by, the
prostitute character's initials (and nickname) being very similar to mine
(Hey, if Chingmy Yau is willing to lend her Chinese name of Suk Ching to
the movie's nerdy male character...)!
Perhaps it's because it does seem that the film's cast – notably Chingmy
Yau, Lily Chung and Anita Lee -- seem to exude such playful and joyful vibes.
What I do feel is that a production that could have turned out to be rather
lame didn't. While not a major laugh-o-rama, it does have segments that
made me smile fairly broadly. I think particularly here of a couple
of scenes -- strangely reminiscent of one in "Peking Opera Blues" when the
three heroines take momentary pleasure in being in each other's female company
-- which feel even more innocent than that in the 1986 dramatic work; even
though, in them, this triumvirate of improbable friends cum apartment-mates
are discussing such as what orgasms feel like for them!
This buoyant impish quality also is present in the depictions of the candid
group counseling sessions at the Family Planning center that Chingmy Yau's
character leads and supervises. For example, in one involving couples,
the (female) viewer is bound to smile with her after she asks who in the room
has had premarital sex and the females of the pairs only acknowledge doing
so, and with some embarrassment and chagrin at their fiancés, after
the males happily do so. And in another, this time for married women
only, knowing amusement should just as surely come out of Miss Chung's suggestions
for enjoyable sex with husbands but also responses to them from the wives.
While one really ought not to read too much into
or from movies (not least this one!), I can't help but think -- based on such
scenes – that maybe why THE MODERN LOVE can be enjoyable for women as well
as men, albeit for different reasons, is that it does seem to celebrate as
well as show female camaraderie (in a cheerful way that is rarely seen in
Hollywood films; I'm not taking a pot shot here, just stating what I consider
to be a fact) as well as male-female bonding which is satisfactory for all
involved in them. For the most part though, I do realize that THE MODERN
LOVE is one refreshingly jaunty work that should pleasantly amuse those viewers
-- of whichever gender -- who take it with the pinch of salt and slice of
humor that it deserves.
My rating for the film: 7.0