MBA PARTNERS (梦想合伙人) DVD (2015)

SYNOPSIS: Three different women becomes business partner, with their own individuality, they create a new career. The movie combine friendship, love and dream, a feel-good movie for contemporary women.

MOVIE REVIEW:

MBA Partners has nothing to do with the much superior American Dreams In China let alone the involvement of Peter Chan. Instead it’s more of a fluffy copy of the latter and instead of three guys, we have a story of three ladies who are making a comeback in life after suffering from individual setback.

First we have Lu Zhenxi (Yao Chen from Firestorm), a country girl who hopes to make it big in New York with her boyfriend. But after she is deported for selling fake bags and ditched by her boyfriend, she returned to China disillusioned. Gu Qiao-yin (Tiffany Tang Yan from Bounty Hunters) on the other hand is a gold digger who simply hopes to marry a rich hubby to pay off her dad’s debts. Lastly, Wen Qing (Hao Lei from the recent One Night Only) is a successful businesswoman whose marriage is crumbling and her daughter being threaten to be taken away from her by her ex. Together and under the guidance of a certain MBA Professor Meng (Aaron Kwok), the unlikely trio must overcome their differences and succeed in the web business.

While the movie is billed as an inspiring tale of ambition and dream, you can’t help but feel the laziness of the script, which consist of way too much coincidences and unbelievable events happening in a very short span of time. Why would a handsome Professor go all the way to help a complete stranger liked Zhenxi? Or invest so much time to ensure their web business work? The movie seems to hint that he is carrying a torch for Zhenxi but that seems liked a half-baked, lame plot device to keep the narration going.

Honestly, we don’t really see much interaction between Meng and Zhenxi in fact most of the movie is spent on Zhenxi with her childhood friend, Niu Juncheng (Li Cheng) or the occasional interactions with her fellow working partners. Kwok’s role as a charming wise professor is more of a glorified cameo that spouts generic nuggets of wisdom when require, nothing more nothing less. Yao Chen finally got a starring role that makes good use of her acting ability while Hao Lei is the most solid performer among the lot.      

MBA Partners actually comes from the hands of one of Korea’s prominent TV director, Jang Tae Yoo (My Love From The Star) so you can assured that the end product is glossy albeit slightly empty. Much of the plot developments are clichéd and pedestrian that you may find it hard to truly invest yourself in the plights of the three main characters. With nothing on the watch list, this suffices for a casual watch.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

NIL

AUDIO/VISUAL:

Both visual and sound is serviceable. 

MOVIE RATING:

DVD RATING :

Review by Linus Tee