movie talk

March 11,1998.

SS Lau

"Twilight"---When one goes to see this movie, the plot or the story is only secondary. One goes to see the old pros work on their craft. In this respect, the movie goer is not disappointed.

"Dangerous Beauty"---This is a story with a 16th century setting in Venice.The plot centers around a rather handsome courtesan. Now a courtesan is somewhat like a geisha, well-trained in the art of entertaining, pleasing and "pleasuring". There is a significant difference between the two, however, a geisha does not usually provide "pillowing", whereas a courtesan does. As I was watching this movie, my thought often went back to the story about a "wise lady of the evening" named "Little Jade Fok", told to us by our history teacher "Shorty Lam". Well, it is that kind of story; and with this reference frame of mind I thoroughly enjoyed the movie. It has just enough flesh shown for you to want more, just enough horse-playing for you to get a good laugh, just enough melodrama for you to see the irony of romantic love, just enough sadness to realize the hopelessness of an arranged marriage, just enough silliness to see the pretentiousness and vanity of men in general and men of cloth in particular.

And then there is Jacqueline Bisset, how this movie goer wishes she would still practise the art of being a courtesan in the movie.

Having said all that, you may find poor reviews about this movie in newspapers and magazines. This movie goes disagrees with them.