SYNOPSIS:
"Crossing Hennessy" is a light-hearted tale of a happy-go-lucky electric appliance store owner and a quiet, stubborn girl-next-door who takes care of a sanitary ware shop for her uncle. The relatives of Cheung and Tang set the two up for a date, seeing that they have both entered their thirties and still have no stable partner. The truth is, Cheung and Tang both have someone else in their hearts. The "date" didn't work as well as the families wished but day by day, a somewhat peculiar friendship comes into bud.
MOVIE REVIEW:
Ivy Ho’s sophomore film after her aimless and tedious directorial debut “Claustrophobia” is a dramedy about a 41-year-old bachelor Loy (Jacky Cheung) who slowly develops a budding friendship/romance with Oi Ling (Tang Wei). Both of them are singles, both reluctantly dragged to a blind date set up by their parents/relatives and both of them work along Hong Kong’s Hennessy Road in the Wanchai area.
As much as the trailer and its poster would have you believe, this is not a romantic comedy. Indeed, there aren’t many comedic moments in the film at all, and even the ones that are supposed to be are at best mildly amusing. What this movie tries to be is a realistic depiction of life and the chances it holds for people like Loy- single men who still live with their parents and have all but given up on falling in love again. Certain directors might just have used this premise for broad comedy, but not Ivy Ho.
Those familiar with her works like “Comrades, Almost a Love Story” and “July Rhapsody” will know that she prefers a more low-key approach where more is hinted than said and more is implied than shown. Arguably, “Claustrophobia” was such a frustrating watch precisely because of too much ambiguity, and though this is still the case with “Crossing Hennessy”, Ivy has since learnt to flesh out her characters and her story a little more.
In particular, Ivy spends much time in her film delineating Loy’s family- his mother the fiery fast-talking woman (Paw Hee Ching); his auntie (Mimi Chu) the spinster with no luck in love; and Uncle Ching (Danny Lee), his mother’s current squeeze, who brings his dog Yoyo around everywhere he goes. Ivy uses these colourful supporting characters to flesh out Loy’s circumstances, even as he spends time with his recently-divorced ex-flame (Maggie Cheung Ho-Yee), holding out hope that she may want to get back together with him.
Compared to Loy, the audience knows little about Oi Ling, except that she has a hot-headed boyfriend (Andy On) who is serving time for assault. Loy and Oi Ling supposedly share more in common than they realise, and over egg tarts and milk tea in Hong Kong’s ubiquitous ‘cha chan teng’, the pair slowly start developing an easy rapport made uncomfortable only by the fact that their families want them to get married as soon as possible. One wishes that Ivy could have spent more time developing Oi Ling’s character, so the bond between them becomes more believable.
But Jacky Cheung and Tang Wei have good chemistry with each other and thanks to that, you’ll be more ready to accept that they may just fall in love with each other. Jacky in particular demonstrates both his dramatic and comedic chops as Loy, and this is probably one of the most multi-faceted (and therefore challenging) roles for him in recent years. The supporting cast of veterans however almost always steal the limelight whenever they appear- Paw Hee Ching always a hoot as the fussy, bossy mother secretly pining for her ex-husband who died in a car accident.
Like “Claustrophobia” however, the film has its fair share of missteps. The most obvious is Ivy’s use of dream sequences for Loy, apparently as a device to show the audience his inner thoughts and worries. They are most of the time out of place, but none as incongruous as an Indian man (Gill Mohindepaul Singh) whose presence in the story is simply inexplicable. Ivy Ho’s pacing could also certainly do with much tightening, as the film mostly unfolds in an unhurried and leisurely pacing that at times tests the patience of its audience. Still, this is a definite step-up from her earlier “Cluastrophobia”- just don’t go in expecting this to be a romantic comedy.
SPECIAL FEATURES:
Besides the trailer and a photo gallery, there’s only one extra on this Code 3 DVD- the “Making Of” which features both cast and crew talking about their respective characters in the film, as well as applauding each other for his/her acting chops.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The film only comes in its Mandarin-dubbed track, so expect many nuances in the dialogue to be lost in translation. Visuals are slightly washed out, and could do with a little more sharpening.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING:
Review by Gabriel Chong
Posted on 11 Jun 2010
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