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silvanfay
Reviews
Miss Du Shi Niang (2003)
An aborted revival of a classical love elegy
Miss du shi niang may be an attempted reproduction of an ancient tale about an abandoned prostitute who ends with suicide upon the betrayal of her lover, with only the music score being noteworthy. The fatal failure may be attributed to the weakness of the screenplay, which includes excessive unessential trifles that distractingly occupy most of the movie running time while lacks a basic reasonable plot frame, making the whole movie deliver in a random and drifting pace, erratically but anticipatively.
It is quite confusing to try to capture the inexplicable central point of the film, or the ultimate intellectual motivation of the director, if any, to shot such a film. One may reflect that the film focuses on the emotional experience of the heroine captivated by ephemeral passion who eventually despairs of the loss, however, the plain cinematography is far from provocative to strike the audience. Daniel's fine performance is badly undermined by the defect of the screenplay. The leading actress, Michelle, may do a better job in cosmetics commercials than play a sentimentally fragile woman who bears unbearable sufferings, with her tearless tear-shed in those lamentation scenes.
For the director, it should not be imprudent to work on an old story with a well-known plot, for there still remains enough freedom to contrive novel flares though the deliberate twists may not be highly expected, which however cannot guarantee the acceptance of a tedious film from the audience. The director did not take the opportunity to polish the script with ready raw materials to make a classical tragedy flourish on screen.
Bak Ging lok yue liu (2001)
A lyrical portrait of gray life pervaded with yearning
It may be the remake of 1987 Autumn's Tale after eleven years, as the director Mabel Cheung claimed. Mabel employs rock music as the medium in this movie to express her personal attitude to life, in which love, desire and the consequential frustration play significantly crucial roles. Rock music may not be the best vehicle to convey the profound sentiment, and yet it is not too inappropriate to utilize it as the life of underground rock musicians is bitterly more intense than an ordinary one. The director focuses on the depiction of subtle affection and ultimate vanity of life rather than mere rock music. The love between father and son, lovers, and friends is delicately and touchingly delivered through the fine performance. Mabel does not attempt to beautify rock musicians as artists at all, instead, she tries to reproduce a true life on screen, making huge efforts of years' working on this project and gathering information in Beijing underground pubs.
Daniel has given probably the best performance in all his movies made so far. His innate dispiritedness and reticence fit the blue mood of the film perfectly.