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Review
by Kozo: |
Director
Derek Yee slums a bit for Drink-Drank-Drunk,
a romantic comedy built to make money. Ultra-bankable
box-office princess Miriam Yeung is joined by Love
Undercover costar Daniel Wu in a commercial film
that's perhaps below Yee's talents. Yee excels at
natural situations and the stuff that makes up romantic
comedies is usually unnatural and even forced. The
formula itself isn't truly at fault, and indeed Drink-Drank-Drunk
is passable commercial stuff. However, Yee's storytelling
instincts are a bit lost on the calculated, manufactured
genre that is romantic comedy. The stars are nice
to look at, and those looking for an easily-digestible
popstar fluff-fest may be charmed. But considering
that Derek Yee directed it, disappointment is possible.
Miriam Yeung is Fung
Siu-Man, a spunky Hong Kong girl who works as a Budweiser
beer girl. For the uninitiated, a beer girl hangs
out at local restaurants and hawks her sponsor's beer
onto the local patrons. Despite the sordid-sounding
job, Siu-Man is actually quite wholesome and is the
standard Miriam Yeung type, i.e. mouthy and independent,
and in need of a proper boyfriend. Triad tough guy
Brother Nine (Alex Fong Chung-Sun) digs her, but she
won't be his. Besides the fact that she doesn't like
blustery triad dudes, Siu-Man can drink Brother Nine
and every other guy under the table. Siu-Man's talent:
total alcohol immunity, meaning nobody can get her
drunk. Those expecting the movie to hinge on Siu-Man's
inability to get drunk had best look elsewhere. Gratefully,
this isn't a completely high-concept film.
Siu-Man meets the inebriated
Michel (Daniel Wu), a French-Chinese chef who runs
a local French eatery. However, business is bad; it
seems Michel's dishes are beyond the casual tastes
of local Hong Kong residents, so it's closing time.
Michel is so broke that he doesn't even have a place
to live. Luckily, Siu-Man's apartment is inordinately
large for a beer girl, plus she'd like to open her
own cafe. She makes Michel a deal: run his restaurant
at night, and she'll run a cafe by day, plus he'll
get room and board at her flat. For added fun, they
can pretend to be platonic roommates after hours.
Big surprise: that doesn't happen, meaning audiences
will swoon at the sight of Daniel Wu and Miriam Yeung
getting it on pretty damn quick. But with the onset
of a relationship comes all sorts of new troubles,
i.e. commitment, marriage, differing goals, and the
requisite romantic rivals. Will Siu-Man and Michel
be able to make their cohabitation last?
Drink-Drank-Drunk earns immediate points for being far more real than
the usual Miriam Yeung laffer. Yeung is her usual
sparkling self, but in comparison to Love Undercover,
the world she inhabits is a more realistic one. There's
the occasional situation comedy, and some characters
are cartoony to the point of distraction. Still, the
trials of Siu-Man and Michel touch upon rather familiar,
grounded issues, and even the film's more commercial
hooks (i.e., Siu-Man can't get drunk) are handled
without overdone comedy. The film's major issues are
commitment and simple communication, and not overly
manufactured circumstance. Some might term this more
grounded approach to romantic comedy as boring, but
it's also quite refreshing. Even diehard Miriam Yeung
fans could use a break from Fong Lai-Kuen.
That is, until it starts
to go on too long. It's nice to see Daniel Wu and
Miriam Yeung's characters reacting in realistic ways,
and true to form, Derek Yee spends time extolling
the working class values of Siu-Man. However, at a
certain point, some characters stop acting like people
and begin acting more like plot devices. Vincent Kok
plays Stock Character #14, i.e. the gay best friend
who shows up to provide exposition into the main character's
life. Likewise, Brother Nine gets a little too sensitive
for someone of his roguish nature and becomes a wellspring
of relationship advice. When gorgeous (and evil) restaurateur
Zhao Jie (Hu Jing) shows up as a romantic rival, everything
grinds to a hackneyed halt. The film does end in a
predictably audience-pleasing fashion, and most audiences
should go home happy. Still, any charm or surprise
the film possessed left a lot sooner.
But that's speaking
from a position of enlarged expectations. If you ignore
the fact that Derek Yee (the guy who made C'est
La Vie, Mon Cheri, One Nite in Mongkok, Lost in Time, and even 2 Young) directed
this film, then you'll probably be easily satisfied. Drink-Drank-Drunk possesses a homey local charm,
and Miriam Yeung and Daniel Wu are both exceptionally
likable. Alex Fong is surprisingly effective overacting
comic support, and again, the film has a largely real
feel. Overall, this is likable and undemanding stuff
that should please most undemanding audiences. Those
looking for a Derek Yee film might go home disappointed,
but that's those pesky enlarged expectations talking
again. If you expect too much out of Drink-Drank-Drunk,
you could burst a vein from your resulting anger.
The alternative is simply to expect very little and
enjoy the cinematic equivalent of a lukewarm bath.
Sure it's not the greatest experience you'll have,
but it's better than nothing. Given the state of all
things Hong Kong Cinema, maybe the standard expectations
should be reevaluated. (Kozo 2005) |
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