Most of us first heard about Stanley KWAN's latest film "The Island Tales" from the news that it was to appear in competition at the Berlin International Film Festival. Like Stanley's "Hold You Tight", his film is scheduled to open after Berlin and Chinese New Year in Hong Kong. Will this film create a new image for Michelle REIS and Julian CHEUNG Chi-lam?

"The Island Tales" is a movie about a motley crew on Manfly Island. States' resident Sharon (Michelle REIS) is visiting with her partner Marianne (MOMOI Kaori). Sharon is a girl who is tough and rational while Marianne is more impulsively oriented, a photographer. Sharon is unhappy with their relationship and they are waiting for the return ferry. At the ferry pier they meet Mei-ling (SHU Qi), a girl who has just begun a relationship with a foreigner, David, and is now waiting for his return. Meanwhile, Haruki (OSAWA Takao), a journalist recovering from tuberculosis, is walking on the beach when he meets Han (Julian CHEUNG), an actor escaping his hectic schedule. The peace of the island is suddenly disturbed by a crisis. The government has discovered that it may possibly be the source of the hazardous Stone Virus, placing the island under quarantine. Nobody is allowed to come or go.

As with "Hold You Tight", "The Island Tales" centres around the relationships and interactions beween different groups. In "Hold You Tight", their was the triangle of Chingmy YAU, Sunny CHAN and Eric TSANG. In "The Island Tales" there are three parties: Mei-ling + David, Sharon + Marianne and the triangle of Han, Bo and Haruki.

Whether you care for "The Island Tales" or not depends on your willingness to enter into Stanley KWAN's experiment. In this movie, the relationships between the characters are not sketched in detail for us. We do not know the background or intricacies of the relationship between Sharon and Marianne, and we cannot measure the strength of the attraction between Mei-ling and David. The whole movie is very flat in its description. However, it is understandable that only "pale" descriptions can bring out the relationships and interactions between a group who are essentially strangers. This set-up makes the response to the announcement of the quarantine much more interesting. However, there needs to be greater description of the individuals themselves in addition to the depiction of the environment. Without this, audiences may find the second half of the movie difficult to endure.

Michelle REIS stands out as the US citizen whose behaviour is disliked by almost everybody: she tends to speak in English when Cantonese is more appropriate, she acts superior to everybody and arrogantly thinks she is smarter than the others. This reflects the characteristics of many people in Hong Kong. In fact, while she looks very tough and cool, her self-confidence evaporates when faced with a crisis. In comparison, MOMOI Kaori's character is passive. The role lacks focus making it difficult to interpret her relationship with Sharon. As such it is difficult to judge the quality of her acting since the role is so undemanding. SHU Qi is purely a side-show in the movie since we neither see David, nor hear his voice. She has to express the sudden love between herself and David and fortunately the flat style of the film benefits this depiction.

Generally, there isn't much room for the actors to act. Its a pity to see Julian CHEUNG wasted in this film. Following the interaction between Han and Haruki on the beach, one expects more interactions between them later but their relationship is never mentioned after the quarantine is announced. In short, "The Island Tales" is a movie with a flat description of a day on an outlet island. Michelle Reis gives us a new angle to her acting but we cannot find anything of interest from the other actors.

Written by Ryan Law, from Hong Kong Movie DataBase, on 23 February, 2000.