Honesty
Honesty
Director: Wong Jing
Year: 2003
Rating: 6.0
A couple of years
ago I went to see my doctor and after a test he told me that my sugar levels
were higher than they should be and that I would have to make some changes.
The two things he singled out were coca-cola and Hong Kong comedies. Both
could be dangerous to my long-term health he told me. But you know how hard
it is to do what a doctor tells you to do. I have been pretty good when it
comes to coke but every now and then I have to indulge in a Hong Kong comedy
and my sugar levels go sky high. They should come with a warning sign for
diabetics. Honesty is about as sweet as it gets but to its credit not ever
treacle really. Only near the end like any sweet left in the open too long
it gets a little gooey. But again, it’s not really a “make me gag”
gooey. Wong Jing manages to give a touch of goofiness even to these
parts.
Like most modern Hong Kong comedies it
aims for cute and it hits it like road kill in the middle of the highway.
Cute is the mantra of comedy now. People act in these adorable make
believe ways that don’t in any way resemble real human beings. You don’t
need that legal statement in front of these films. Puppy like young stars,
cute set-ups, capricious designs and whimsical camera work shouts out in
a high pitched voice “kawaii!”. The Twins were of course the masters of this
but others rushed in as well who in truth I generally find indistinguishable
from one another. But Cecilia Cheung was different because though she can
play cute as she does here; she also has shown some major acting skills in
films such as Failan and Lost in Time. So you never know exactly what you
are going to get from her which always makes one of her films a bit of an
exploration. In Honesty she does cute on steroids as every thought that passes
through her swiss cheese mind is expressed on her face in the broadest (and
cutest) way imaginable. I’ve always thought her oval face, pointy nose and
little eyes make her as close to an anime character as a person could be.
She is like a character in the Tin-tin movie except they would not have to
bother with all that motion capture computer animated stuff they used. She
is living anime. Living art. Ok, on to the plot.
Moses (Richie Ren) is too good to be true.
As I said earlier, no one in this film resembles anyone living or dead. He
is kind to everyone from a beggar to a stranger in front of him on the bus
whose hair is out of place. He visits the elderly, is a veterinarian and
cries when he lies. And much too staid and dull for his well-filled out girlfriend
Mimi (Lee San-san, one of the Cop Shop Babes who sadly has left the business)
who has an affair with the nose-picking pizza man (Eric Kot). Moses kindly
moves out of his own home and moves in with his girl chasing nephew played
by Raymond Wong. One of the elderly men (Wong Ting-lam) that Moses visits
decides to leave $25 million dollars to Moses in his will.
Moses has no knowledge of this but a nightclub
hostess finds out when one of her inebriated lawyer clients tells her. This
hostess Little Girl (Cecilia) has a brainstorm, track Moses down, woo him,
seduce him, trap him, marry him and take all his money. She nearly orgasms
just at the thought of her fiendish plan! When she meets him she is delighted
to hear that he has many ailments and thinks that at most he will only live
a few months after the wedding. After she finagles her way into moving in
with Moses, Little Girl’s plan goes well for a while even though her loud-mouthed
old boyfriend (Chapman To) shows up and Mimi comes back to also live with
Moses and the lawyer shows up and recognizes Little Girl and even the pizza
man shows up again – but none of this is what might possibly derail her plan.
That would be the worst thing imaginable (unless you have ever seen a romantic
comedy before) as love rears its ugly head. Silly stupid fun that does amuse
at times with additional cameos from Pinky Cheung, Wong Jing, Iris Chan and
Kitty Yuen. Next week I have to go back to New York City for another check-up.
My doctor will let me know just how much damage this film has done to me.
