Wayne Wang's most recent feature, "Chinese Box," is best described as an intriguing mess: several strong performances amid some interesting themes don't quite manage to form a coherent whole. It's somewhat frustrating to watching because the film feels like it could have been much better. Still, there's plenty to enjoy as it is.
With the handover of Hong Kong to China in mid-1997 impending, Jeremy Irons, as a British writer/journalist named John, learns he is dying of leukemia--in fact, dying at a rate that means he'll disappear from the scene at about the same time the British will. The obvious allegory is, unfortunately, not as well developed as it might be; at least, much of the plot doesn't seem to support the allegory in any intelligible way. The film follows his relationships with two Chinese women--Gong Li's prostitute-turned-nightclub-owner Vivian, and Maggie Cheung's feisty street hustler Jean. Oddly, though, the stories of the three individuals are arguably more compelling than the relationships between them: Vivian, though she has made her way out of prostitution, is nonetheless barred by her past from marrying her businessman lover, and must resort to sending home fake wedding pictures. Jean hawks pirated videos and pines for her British boyfriend--yet, when he surfaces and acknowledges that he has forgotten her completely, she shrugs it off after a moment and goes back to work. And John, onetime writer of a tome called "How to Make Money in Asia," is forced by his illness to see the reality of Hong Kong, even as he fades away from it. His unrequited love for Vivian never seems fully realized, since the two characters don't get to interact much until the end of the film--and, oddly, John's scenes with Jean have more life.
Irons, as usual, fills out his part nicely; he makes the audience believe in his illness, seemingly becoming paler and more gaunt over the course of the story, and, like the British presence, increasingly muted and insubstantial. (Hmmm. Maybe that allegory worked after all.) Cheung, erstwhile action-movie star, is a burst of energy in a sometimes languid film; more self-possessed and more savvy than the other two leads, she is the only one who seems to have a clear direction. Li's icy aloofness will be familiar to those who know her from past efforts, mostly under the direction of Zhang Yimou: "Raise the Red Lantern," "Ju Dou," "To Live," and "Shanghai Triad," as well as "Farewell My Concubine" and "Temptress Moon", saw her refining her imperious air. But this is the first role speaking mostly in English, and at times she struggles to make herself understood (though at other times she comes through with what sounds almost like an American twang). (One scene where she tries to imitate Marlene Dietrich's voice has something of a self-referential quality.) And it's difficult for the audience to connect with her character, since the film is played mostly through Irons's eyes and Irons doesn't really understand her himself. Still, Li has a subtly expressive face that makes her enjoyable to watch, even though enigmatic.
Wang's quasi-documentary style does not serve him well here. Much of the dialogue was drowned out by background noise; Li's lines in particular, which would have been difficult to understand in the best of circumstances, take some repeat listening to decipher. The shaky-camera technique, though it imparts an air of realism, becomes tired and distracting after a while. Though there are moments when the handheld camera works well--following Cheung down an alley, for example--it more often calls attention away from the lead actors and onto the director. Aside from a few moments at the beginning and the end, moreover, the political element hardly makes it into the film, which is unfortunate because the documentaryish angle might have served Wang well there. Instead, the love story becomes the bulk of the plot--and considering how little development that story receives, the film sometimes slows almost to a halt. With lesser actors than these three, it could have been rather wearying.
There are things to enjoy about "Chinese Box," but the movie as a whole needs some work. If you're a Gong Li or Jeremy Irons fan, give it a shot.
--Duncan Stevens
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews