Mr Cinema (Variety Review)

[dleedlee]

Mr. Cinema
Lo Kong Chingcheng

(Hong Kong-China) A Sil-Metropole Organization/Southern Film Co. (in Hong Kong) release of a Sil-Metropole (Hong Kong)/Western Movie Group, Xi'an Film Studio Corp., Xi'an Qujiang Film & TV Investment Group Co. (China) presentation of a Sil-Metropole production. (International sales: Sil-Metropole, Hong Kong.) Produced by Cheung Hong-tat, Wang Zhanliang, Wu Tianming, Zhao An. Executive producers, Song Dai, Yan Yiyun, Zhou Dejia. Directed by Samson Chiu. Screenplay, Sze Yeung-ping, Scarlet Siu, Chiu.

With: Anthony Wong, Ronald Cheng, Teresa Mo, Karen Mok, Paw Hee-ching, John Sham, Andrew Lin, Clarence Hui, Sun Li-min.
(Cantonese, Mandarin dialogue)


A panorama of 40 years of Hong Kong history via the family of a left-wing film projectionist, "Mr. Cinema" gradually evolves into a moving tribute to the eternal adaptability of the territory's folk. Unflashily shot -- at times like an old-style '50s Cantonese movie -- but cleverly combining a disparate mix of actors (vet Anthony Wong, goofball comic Ronald Cheng) in dialed-down mode, pic is a quality item for Asiaphiles and fest sidebars. Helmed by Samson Chiu, best known for his more satirical portraits of the Hong Kong psyche, "Golden Chicken" and "Golden Chicken 2," film went out locally in June.

Beginning with a screening of an old movie for a small, select audience -- a scene that only makes emotional sense when seen again, at the end of the picture -- the story is one big flashback, as projectionist Zhou Heung-kong (Wong) recalls the past four decades of his life. Living in a simple hillside tenement with his devoted wife (Teresa Mo) and baby son, Zhou was one of the territory's sizable pro-Mainland contingent during the '60s, with an idealized view of Maoist China and a lifelong wish to visit Tiananmen Square.

Always attending meetings in his free time with fellow pro-Mainlanders, Zhou has a combative friendship with his pro-Taiwan neighbor, Luk Yau (John Sham, in pic's only overstated perf).

By the early '80s, when he's become a brawling schoolkid, Zhou's son, Zhou Chung (Cheng), becomes the narrator. Teased for his father's unfashionable politics, Chung also spends time with Luk's daughter, Luk Min (Karen Mok), but is too shy to advance the relationship, keen as she is. These scenes, with both actors playing way below their real ages, have a playful sweetness that recalls schoolkid romances of the period.

Chung's business escapades in China during the early '90s -- a period when many were ripped off during the country's initial economic boom -- ring very true, even in their comic exaggeration here. But when tragedy strikes the family just before the 1997 handover, Zhou's life enters a final, mellower stage.

Many of the pic's small details will be lost on general Western auds, but the script, peppered with news items marking the passage of time, is built on personal relationships rather than politics. Chung's on-off relationship with the ever-patient Min is one major strand that binds the episodic yarn together; another is Zhou's friendship with his aging group of pro-Mainlanders (some of whom prosper as China opens up) and his selfless sponsorship of a friend's son (Andrew Lin) to study business in Beijing.

Wong, Cheng and Mok are all uncharacteristically restrained here, as is Mo, who's almost the de facto emotional center of the movie as Zhou's ever-supportive wife. Final reels pack a real emotional punch as Zhou -- who remains a lone idealist to the end -- has only his movie dreams to support him.

Leon Ko's through-composed score, a relative rarity in Hong Kong cinema, is a major assist throughout. Bill Lui's production design and William Fung's costumes score small points over the passage of time, and clips from left-wing Mainland movies also add flavor.

Pic was produced by longtime pro-China company Sil-Metropole, expressly to celebrate the 10th anniversary of Hong Kong's handover.

Camera (color), Charlie Lam; editor, Jacky Leung; music, Leon Ko; production designer, Bill Lui; costume designer, William Fung; sound (Dolby Digital), Leung Chung-wai; sound designers, Nip Kei-wing, Phyllis Cheng; visual effects, Brilliant Genesis Intl.; visual effects supervisor, Stephen Ma; assistant director, Feli Tang. Reviewed on DVD, London, Nov. 3, 2007. (In Vancouver Film Festival.) Running time: 110 MIN.




http://www.variety.com/review/VE1117935 ... id=31&cs=1

[ewaffle]

Lovely review--a real selling review, if you will, but....

Wong, Cheng and Mok are all uncharacteristically restrained here, as is Mo, who's almost the de facto emotional center of the movie as Zhou's ever-supportive wife. Final reels pack a real emotional punch as Zhou -- who remains a lone idealist to the end -- has only his movie dreams to support him.

I have seen only fourteen of the movies that featured Karen Mok (and a couple with brief cameos) which is significantly less than half of her work. Maybe I missed those in which she was "characteristically unrestrained" to extend the reviewers usage but it is really odd to class her--or almost anyone--with Anthony Wong in the realm of unrestrained or over the top or scene stealing or however one wants to put it performances.

[Brian Thibodeau]

Interesing point. I've seen a few Karen Mok performances that I'd say were unrestrained, but it was usually what the character called for: loud, brassy, take-no-sh!t kinda performances, some great, some so-so. Perhaps the reviewer saw only those ones (as well selected titles from Anthony Wong's early 90's work) and assumed she was prone to overdoing it?