97' Lan Kwai Fong
Director: Joe Hau Wing-choi
Year: 1997
Rating: 4.0
I suppose the most
amazing thing about this fairly harmless endeavor is that though it was produced
in 1997 and even has that date in the title – I could not find one reference
or even a slice of subtext to the Hong Kong Handover to China! What were
they thinking? I suppose it could be there – hidden cleverly in the dark
and smoky discos or the conflict between two groups of women – but if so
it passed me by without incident. Instead, this appears to be nothing more
than a dreary attempt to get as many young actresses on the screen as possible
and surround them with only the flimsiest of plots.
A group of female twenty-somethings with names like Benz, Porsche, Dior,
Baby and Gee spend their days working in ordinary jobs, but at night they
strut their stuff at the clubs in the Lan Kwai Fong area of Hong Kong. The
“Seven Princesses” as they are referred to flit from club to club in this
trendy neighborhood deflecting men, making merry, taking drugs, gossiping
and finally wobbling home in the wee hours of the night. The film sketchily
throws together a few of their stories – Eileen Tung starting up a fashion
boutique on her ex-boyfriends money, Farini Cheung stealing clients from
one of her friends through trysts in the lady’s room, Bak Ka-sin secretly
driving an unfashionable minibus for her job – but none of these stories
seem to have any purpose other than padding the film to the 90-minute mark.
The main story revolves around Porsche played by Alice Chan and the troubles
she innocently gets into.
Alice Chan has primarily been a TV actress, which is a shame because she
comes across quite well in this film – especially considering that the film
is rather pointless and empty headed – but what really struck me was her
astonishing resemblance to a young Anita Mui. For me that is quite a plus
and I spent most of the film just thinking to myself – “damn, she looks so
much like Anita” and her short hair style seems built to emphasize this.
She attracts the attentions of handsome stone faced Marco, a disco manager
played by Michael Tong, much to the annoyance of Sister Peacock. Sister Peacock
is a young and up and coming pill pusher and Michael finally decides they
don’t really have much in common besides looking good and so boots her out
of his apartment. The camera sadly follows poor Sister Peacock as she walks
away down the street – looking back over her shoulder for the change of heart
that never comes. And follows her for some more - and more - until
finally they run out of film.
Resenting Michael’s attention to Alice and possibly jealous of her looking
so much like Anita, Sister Peacock and her two drugged up female assistants
frame Alice for stealing a shipload of pills from the triads. It looks like
trouble for the Seven Princesses – oops make that the three Princesses –
as four of them decide this isn’t really their business – and it may intrude
on tonight’s fun. Triads trying to kill you have that effect. None of this
is in the least bit interesting and unfortunately both Farini and Eileen
are given the short shrift in terms of screen time – and only the presence
of Alice Chan makes this at all bearable.
