Love Me, Love My Money
Director: Wong Jing
Year: 2001
Rating: 6.0
When did Wong Jing
begin going soft? Everyone loses their edge eventually I suppose, but it
is sad seeing it happen to the man who gave tasteless and outlandish fare
a respectable name. Of course Wong Jing has also been one as likely to follow
a trend as to create one and these days romantic comedies are the big thing
in Hong Kong. Earlier in the year (2001) he teamed up Leon Lai and Cecilia
Cheung in Everyday is Valentine and now he has thrown together Tony Leung
Chiu-wai and the effervescent Hsu Chi in an attempt to cash in on the latest
fad. Though Everyday had some middling appeal (HK$10MM), Love Me falls short
of both inspiration and box office draw (HK$4.6MM).
It takes a while to realize just how limp this film is because of the pleasures
derived by simply watching Tony and Hsu Chi in action. Both are seamlessly
attractive and ooze a genial dewy charm that appears to be almost effortless.
So it is very easy to lay back and wait for the inevitable to happen – meet
cute, fall in love, fight and reconcile – and take a certain satisfaction
from it. Sure its basic eye candy – but without a doubt high quality eye candy
– the Godiva of eye candy. And it looks so good to eat that you are half
way through it before you realize that something is missing from this gooey
looking chocolate – a script that is neither very amusing nor very romantic.
It’s not for lack of trying from the two main stars but they are saddled
with a script that that would have sunk the English fleet at Trafalgar. The
plot outline certainly seems to give the opportunity to have some fun with
but the dots are never connected with the appropriate dashes.
Tony plays an extremely wealthy businessman who is tighter with a dollar
than a nouvelle upper eastside eatery is with their entrée. His cheapness
causes his entire staff and his girlfriend to leave him on the same day –
and his girlfriend decides to donate his furniture to goodwill and to cancel
his credit cards. Hsu Chi and her friend, Teresa Mak, see him accepting money
from an old girlfriend – now pregnant - and jump to the obvious conclusion
that he must be a gigolo. It just so happens that Hsu Chi needs to show a
boyfriend to her father, Wong Yat Fei, and who better than a gigolo she can
hire – shades of Boys are Easy! Tony finds the fact that they think he earns
his money by pleasing women rather a compliment and he goes along with their
mistaken impressions - and in his circumstances he can also use the
money. Of course romance comes a calling but Tony continues the deception
because it is so refreshing to have a woman loving him for himself and not
for his money. Angie Cheung has a cameo as a seductive therapist and Lam Ka
Tung plays Tony's friend.
Its not that the film is difficult to get through – I would stay to watch
Hsu Chi smile and pout during a tropical hurricane - and Tony is rather
fun in this role as a miserly tightwad – but where is the craziness, the loopiness,
the it makes no sense but who cares that one use to associate with Wong Jing.
He plays it much too safe here and ends up with a run of the mill romantic
comedy that is as forgettable as a politician’s promise.
