Princess-d is the latest highly anticipated film from actress turned director Sylvia Chang. Her direction combined with the teen heartthrob star power of Daniel Wu and Edison Chen the film might be deemed an almost certain success. Almost… The title "Seung Fei" bears a meaning of desiring to fly. In some ways to have freedom to go, to be free to fly after your dream is the central theme of the film.


The film's strong point lies in its rich development of interesting characters. Daniel Wu plays Joker, a graphic artist working at developing cyber girls for computer games and interactive demos. Angelica Lee, in her second big screen performance, stars as Ling a young girl living life in the dark side of Hong Kong trying to resolve the sins left by her father and created by her brother. Ling's strong personality (along with a bit of an acid trip) gives Joker the inspiration he needs to develop his new cybergirl. Edison Chen plays Kid, Jokers younger brother whose only enjoyment in life is playing ICQ and sleeping. Anthony Wong gives a cameo as the boys' father, who teaches ballroom dance in their studio apartment.


But all of these rather interesting portrayals are soon lost in a rather muddled storyline. Joker's fascination with both Ling and Princess-d seems to be trying to emerge at certain points, but this conflict is never really expressed. Does he really love Ling or only her representation of Princess-d? Ling, living in a world of raves and drugs, seeks to escape the environment she is in and serves as the guardian for her mother and brother, but it seems she is seeking to escape from more than just debts of the past but from Hong Kong itself (a common theme among young people these days). Kid is looking for his ICQ friend Lovely, but when he meets her, he finds it is not what he expected. In today's modern era of online friends, this plotline could have been developed even further than it is here. The film's point (as is given in a brief statement at the end) is that everyone should have a dream to chase even if these dreams cannot always be attained. Unfortunately the interesting points that the film brings up are never as fully developed as they could have been and the more interesting characters of the film, such as the Joker's father and Ling's mother, are dealt with the least.


The film features a great deal of CG for the Princess-d sequences (and a few others). This is no Final Fantasy, but some of the sequences are quite beautiful. For the most part however many of these are mere eye candy and have no real bearing on the storyline. These visuals along with the strong performances ultimately save the film and keep it entertaining, but don't expect to fly out of your seat.



Overall review rating - 3 (out of 5)

Review by Paul Fox

Location: AMC Festival Walk

Time: Thursday 28 March 2002 9:35pm