Movie Talk

May 10, 1998

S.S.Lau

What is a Chinese box ? Well, it is a box that does not seem to have any locks, and yet it is difficult to open without knowing how, such as where to slide one of the sides up or down to expose another layer or a corner to continue the process until an inner box is exposed. There are supposed to be many boxes contained within one single big box. In other words, one does not know what is inside or how many layers and tricks one has to learn before the inner boxes are exposed. I did not know the Chinese had constructed such boxes. I had a box from Japan once that was like that, and the inner box needed 17 steps ( movements) before it could be exposed. The movie ---The Chinese Box ---is just as tricky.

The movie is not about a love story between a British journalist and a Chinese northern woman who was supposed to be a kept woman in Hong Kong . As a love story, it is kind of lousy in many aspects. As a movie, it is rather boring. It was also made to suit the international movie viewers. Some of the stuff are just unreasonable, such as a British journalist living a Chinese building ( a Tong Lau without air condition, it is the biggest joke in the movie), and a kept woman living in a poor-house-like room. If a kept woman lives likes that who wants to be a kept women.

During the first half of the movie, I did not know what the movie was all about and kept on wondering how Wayne wang ( the renowned director and co-author of the script) could be so bad in the character and story development of this movie---reportedly his master piece attempting to pay homage to his native Hong Kong.

Then it occurred to me what this movie was all about, and I understood, or I thought I understood. Everything then began to make sense. On the surface it was a love story, but it is really trying to make a statement. What is this statement ? I will tell you at the end of this edition of Movie Talk.

In terns of the main characters, Irons is Irons, he is always a skillful and fine actor. There was a Chinese girl (Margaret Cheung) in the movie, who spoke very understandable British English with a Hong Kong twist and was the de facto main character in the movie. She did fine in the movie.

Gong Li hardly spoke in the movie, perhaps, due to her limited her English ability, or due to some unknown reasons. For an almost silent part, she does not have the acting skill or ability to carry the movie. She really depended on her looks to a large extent in the past, and it seems her time has passed.

Well, what is this movie all about ? In my interpretation, it is about hopelessness, manifested in an ill-fated love story and a reflection of the situation of hopelessness felt by the Hong Kong people on the eve of Chinese take-over. It is a love story on the surface, while in fact is a political story. At the end of the movie, a statement is made by the final scene---a fish cut apart with still pulsating muscles, and that is Hong Kong-- it is destined to die and yet it is still struggling to stay alive.

Dear Lighters; This is how I see it , and this is my interpretation of this movie. What is yours ?