After a somewhat dissapointing December at the box-office, Wu Yen is an unexpected treat for the Chinese New Year. A comedic farce based upon a legendary Chinese fable it features three of Hong Kong's leading female performers in the key roles.

Sammi Cheng stars as the films main character Cheung Mo Yim. A gifted female warrior who is destined to marry the emperor and bring prosperity to the dynasty. Cecelia Cheung plays the fairy spirit that comes between the destined couple. The nature of her role has her playing both masculine and feminine roles. Anita Mui has the largest role as both the Emperor Qi and his descendant Emperor Huang.

Arguably, Anita Mui is the real star of this film. She is given the most material of the film and comes across with some of the best laughs. This should come as no surprise given her extensive film background. Wu Yen marks her return to the big screen after a four-year hiatus. Her last film was Eighteen Spring (1997) for which she won the award for best supporting actress. Her performance here as two male characters in the film is only underscored when she later (as a man) dons a dress to portray a woman. Sammi and Cecelia also give noteable performances and the three woman work quite well on scrren together.

The content of the film plays very much like a live cartoon, with sound effects and visuals to match. It also features some traditional shadow puppet narration and narrative music sung by Sammi. This creates some beautiful storytelling and in today's industry where everything of late seems to be rendered by computer effects, it is nice to see a film that returns to a bit of tradition.

Johnnie To is no stranger to comedic direction and has proven his versatility in films such as Justice, My Foot! (1992) and The Fun the Luck and the Tycoon (1990). The key to this film, as in his other comedy works, is in the script and the dialogue. If there is any problem with Wu Yen, it lies in the fact that the director chose to keep it solely in the realm of comedy, so at times Wu Yen may seem to be a bit lacking in the action department. Still, this is only a minor flaw in a film that is so wonderfully woven.
 
Overall review rating : 4

Review by Paul Fox
Location:  UA Shatin
Time: Sunday 21 January    7:30pm