Come Fly with Me
Director: Richard Chen Yao-chi
Year: 1976
Rating: 6.0
I suppose it is easy
to mock some of these old Taiwanese Brigitte Lin films from the 1970s – they
are sort of bland and now seem irredeemably corny – but one thing they had
down to a science was the close up. And in a Brigitte Lin film the close
up is a sacred moment – a reverential moment – a time to quiet the kids
and the barking dogs - a time to give thanks. Each close up is a bit
of a journey – a new opportunity to study the fabulous face that conquered
Asia from the 1970s to the 1990s.
In some films you focus on the dramatic thick eyebrows, in others the sculpted
cleft chin, in others the irresistible pout - but in this one I went
for a glorious swim in the infinite pools of her honey sweet eyes. One of
the first things that clearly came naturally to Brigitte as an actress was
how to use her eyes to convey an incredible range of emotions – and she can
use them to seduce softly or to wreck vengeance. In these early films though
thoughts of mass destruction were far off in the future – she is only on the
verge of adulthood – a slender but hardy willow – and her eyes are as soft
and lovely as a late night moonlight sonata.
Here she is teamed up with Charlie Chin – in these Taiwanese films for the
most part it seems her lead male was almost always either Charlie or Chin
Han – in a light social comedy of manners. Brigitte comes from a good family
in which her father wants to marry her off to the son of his boss. The son
is a bit of a pompous prig – easy to discern by his loud checked suits and
wide dull ties – and Brigitte of course wants as much to do with him as she
does with a case of hepatitis. Instead she wants Charlie.
Charlie – quite charming and handsome in this film (I much prefer him to
Chin Han) – does not come from the right stuff – he dropped out of college
– comes from a lower middle class family – and wants only to build and fly
gliders (and usually crash them!). Just the sort of guy that fathers hate
and daughters love. Brigitte has her first kiss ever with Charlie – but she
thinks that he is more interested in gliders than he is in her. Take a look
in the mirror Brigitte, I don’t think you have much to worry about.
This is an easy going reasonably enjoyable little fluffy film that has a
few comical scenes and Brigitte needless to say is terrific. She grins, she
pouts and has many wonderful “hmmphs!” in the film. A few other Brigitte scenes
to look for – Brigitte showing her skinny legs in a flimsy negligee, Brigitte
blowing bubbles in a sudsy bath and Brigitte changing outfits every five
minutes. It may not be much – but it is all I need.
