Eternal Love
Director: Tommy Law
Year: 2000
Rating: 5.0
Karaoke killed the
Canto-pop song.
At least for the first thirty minutes of
this film I found myself enjoying the yuppie ambiance and the music business
environment. It felt fresh and was delving into an area that has interested
me of late. Why is it that all the new Canto-pop singers are so attractive
– and why do so many of them sound alike? Unfortunately though, instead of
aiming for He’s a Woman, She’s a Man quirky comic feel, the film catches a
morose case of the “A Star is Born” syndrome and goes into a depressing tailspin
that it never recovers from.
Alex Fong is a famous Canto-pop writer and producer, but his compositions
now sound old fashioned and no singers are interested in singing them. Leslie
isn’t returning his calls and the young crowd mock him with snide remarks
behind his back. Fong rails angrily at the modern day singers with little
talent – bland products of the pop idol machine – and the songs that are
geared to performing in karaoke lounges. He can’t change his style
though and his prospects look a bit bleak – though he still manages to live
quite nicely. His girlfriend does a mental calculation of his future net
value and takes a powder for Canada.
While nursing a beer in a neighborhood bar, he looks up from his worries
into the large brown sympathetic eyes of Yoyo Mung and like most of us is
bewitched instantly. Yoyo serves large welcoming smiles along with the beers
and Alex is soon courting her and making friends with her senile grandmother,
Helen Law Lan. In a karaoke bar of all places, he hears Yoyo sing and sets
her up for an audition. It turns out to be a good news/bad news scenario
– they love Yoyo but they hate his music. Oh oh, you know where this film
is headed and it makes a beeline for it with the charm of a plastic fork.
It is a shame because there was some good chemistry between Alex and Yoyo
and it had the makings of a solid romantic comedy – but once Alex gets all
surly and his lower lip takes on a life of its own the film becomes a turgid
and unrelenting trip to the predictable. The main pluses here are a lovely
portion of Yoyo – she has pools of emotion in those eyes of hers – and an
enjoyable sound track with a number of songs on it.
As a point of interest, the old band that Alex meets in Taiwan is led by
Joe Junior – a famous HK pop star in his day
