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Review
by Kozo: |
The
saga of UFO’s Banana Ripening series continues under writer-director
Jacob Cheung. Our regular protagonist Bo (John Tang) finally reaches
college, but he apparently still has some growing up to
do as his struggles with the opposite sex continues. He and Ting
Ting are now apart and his current girlfriend Ling is heading
abroad to study. Once in school, he finds a number of ripe candidates,
but it’s an older, wiser student named Jean (Yeung Ching) that
he grows to love. In other news, Dad (Eric Tsang) goes to the
hospital because of developing throat cancer, and Bo must deal
with acclimation to school and such.
As usual, this entry relies on the most
perishable and precious of our memories shown to the beat of the
Bee Gees’ “First of May.” Most of the original cast is gone: Mom
has been recast again, Ting Ting is played by someone else, and
Wong Wai-Nam is missing as best pal Mo. His absence is especially
felt as the whole Bo-Mo friendship added some counterpoint to
Bo’s female troubles. As it is, new love interest Jean is charming,
but wholly unexplained and even peripheral to what’s really going
on. The point of all this: Bo must continue to grow, and he slowly
does.
Narrative-wise, the film manages to circle
back upon itself for some closure, but it’s all somewhat amorphous
in meaning. The whole exercise seems to be redundant, especially
without someone like Eileen Tung to enliven things. Charming,
but not great. If Bo must return, I vote that he manage a real
relationship instead of trying to get women in the sack and then
learning from the success and/or failure of the enterprise. (Kozo
1997)
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