You are currently displaying Big5
¬îÁø (1976)
Chelsia My Love


Reviewed by: ororama
Date: 08/09/2020

Chelsia Chan plays Chelsia Li, a terminally ill young singer-songwriter determined to spend her last days improving the lives of relatives and friends in Chelsia, My Love. Chan, winner of a Hong Kong amateur singing contest the preceding year, has a pleasant voice and sings several pop songs in English and one in Mandarin. Kenny Bee, who plays her younger sister's boyfriend, sings one song solo and has several duets with Chan. A potential romance between the two is offered to stoke the jealousy of the younger sister, but Chan and Bee have no romantic chemistry and their interaction is limited to singing a few songs together and expressing admiration for the other's talent and character. The more promising romance between Chelsia and the humanitarian Mr. Ma, played by Lee Shing-Lung, who brings considerable charm to his role, is given too little attention.

The decision by Chelsia's father and her doctor to keep her inexplicably hopeless condition a secret creates plenty of opportunities for hidden tears for all, ultimately resulting in everyone lamenting her fate without talking about it. The failure to adequately develop the romance robs the movie of the opportunity to go for the emotional impact of Love Story or the later, superior C'est La Vie, Mon Chéri. Chelsia, My Love instead serves primarily as a vehicle to promote the singing career of Chelsia Chan, who is pretty and sweet and gives a good, but far from exceptional performance. However, she won the best leading actress award at the Golden Horse Film Festival, despite only being called upon to display a range from nobility to pluckiness to occasional sadness.


Reviewed by: Cissi
Date: 07/08/2001
Summary: 5/10-Soap opera material

This movie is interesting for two reasons. One, during this period Kenny Bee wanted to break into the Taiwanese market, so we see him speaking in Mandarin. Two, Kwan San, who plays the father, also happens to be Rosamund Kwan's father.

Apart from that, this movie is straight out of those 60s weepies. Chelsia is a gifted musician (with a heavily branded piano) who has an incurable illness (her parents try to hide this fact, with the weird reason to protect her from depression). Kenny Bee, who is in a band with her, likes her, but Chelsia's wilful little sister likes him. A mildly interesting, predictable soap opera, with stock characters (stoic dad, gentle mum, saintly main character, gentlemanly suitor, etc), a lot of tears and long anguished scenes. If you can stand tears and also understand Mandarin, you might be able to watch this from beginning to end. If you hate overwrought films and/or can't understand Mandarin, like me (I gave up after misinterpreting "this looks nice" for "rear view mirror") then give this a miss.