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Review
by Kozo: |
It's
Take Two for Handover Anniversary films. Hooked on
You, from director Law Wing-Cheong (2 Become
1) and producer Johnnie To (more great movies than
we could fit in this space), arrives on the heels of
Mr. Cinema, which celebrated the 10th Anniversary
of Hong Kong's return to China in a cursory, though
very satisfying manner. Hooked on You is similarly
cursory; it takes place from 1997-2007, and uses famous
events in Hong Kong history to provide color and depth
to the trials and tribulations of its characters. However,
the history is just background here, and doesn't provide
the overt commentary on Hong Kong and its people that
Mr. Cinema did. Instead, Hooked on You concentrates on character and situation, and does so
in a remarkably entertaining and even touching manner.
The actors are good too, and barring a few cheesy flourishes,
the situations are exceptionally well-played, and the
emotions wonderfully felt. Frankly, given the current
quality of Hong Kong Cinema, it's practically shocking
how good this movie is.
Miriam Yeung stars as Miu,
a twenty-seven year-old fishmonger working at Fortune
Market, a neighborhood wet market that's home to the
usual assortment of fresh food sellers. Miu is stuck
running a fish stall thanks to her gambling, whoring
father (the great Stanley Fung), who owes a bunch of
money to loan shark Uncle Right (David Lo). Unfortunately,
her dad continues to gamble and whore, meaning it's
up to Miu to save up all the necessary dough to clear
their debt and get out of Fortune Market. She does so
through daily work at the fish stall, but she also moonlights
by selling fish congee made out of the day's leftovers.
Miu is willing to work overtime every day simply because
she wishes for more. She wants a better career, an upwardly
mobile life, and actual financial stability. What she
wishes to avoid is many more years at Fortune Market,
and she absolutely doesn't want a husband of her similar
lower class standing. This rules out Porky (Huang Bo
of Crazy Stone), Fortune Market's butcher, and
Fishman (Eason Chan), a rival fishmonger who sometimes
acts like a bit of an ass.
Fishman is an odd candidate
for Miu's paramour because he's essentially her avowed
enemy. That is, for about fifteen minutes of humorous
gags which basically make Fishman look like an idiot.
Fishman attempts to sabotage Miu and her father numerous
times, but his plans usually backfire, and nobody in
the market is on his side. And why should they be? Miu
is practical, hard working, and possesses fine character,
and Miriam Yeung embodies her with heart and subdued,
down-to-earth charm. She isn't necessarily the sharpest
tool in the shed; her desire for a higher-class husband
causes her to pass up some good opportunities, and she
gets sucked into a few ill-advised get-rich-quick schemes.
But she's clearly a good girl who cares for her dad
and is able to look past Fishman's loutish behavior
to see that he's a good guy, too. Everyone in Fortune
Market seems to love Miu, and though his attitude towards
her seems to change a bit too quickly, Fishman grows
to care for her too. He ultimately decides to change
himself into Miu's ideal husband, and begins to hide
his growing affection beneath the same loutish behavior
that once pissed Miu off. The affinity between the two
slowly grows, but as the years pass and Hong Kong changes,
the chances of a union between the two only seems to
grow more distant.
As mentioned earlier, Hooked
on You differs from Mr. Cinema in that its
panorama of Hong Kong's recent history is largely relegated
to the background. Furthermore, the historical events
or social trends depicted are usually only the ones
that affected working class HK residents, e.g. urban
renewal, rapid commercialization, SARS, etc. These are
the things that affect Miu, her neighbors, her friends,
and even Fortune Market, too. Soon after the Handover,
Miu and Fishman find themselves in charge of Fortune
Market, which is in a state of emergency thanks to the
opening of a modernized supermarket nearby. The Fortune
Market gang retaliates against their chain-store invader
by offering value-added shopping bonuses (redemption
programs, free samples, delivery, actual customer service),
with hilarious and frequently satirical results. Miu
also falls prey to a pyramid scheme in the year 2000,
meaning lost cash and hope, and a further setback in
her plan to get out of Fortune Market. The subplots
in Hooked on You are almost episodic in nature,
but they bear an effective character thread demonstrating
Miu's affection for Fortune Market, and her desire to
find a better life for herself.
Nowhere is this more apparent
than in her search for love. She initially spurns a
baker due to his class status, but later reconsiders
when he opens his own restaurant. Meanwhile, she gives
Porky and Fishman a red light in their advances. Porky
chooses to leave Fortune Market to accomplish more,
promising to one day return as a man worthy of Miu's
love. That plot thread is dropped, but there's another
point to all these characters coming and going from
Fortune Market: the place is clearly a metaphor for
Hong Kong, with the choice to stay or leave the market
echoing the common pre-handover decision to emigrate
or remain in the territory. Some characters flee the
market seeking greater fortune, and others - most especially
Fishman - doggedly remain, clinging to the idea of an
unchanging home. One character even states that they
wish for Fortune Market to remain unchanged for 50 years,
just like China's promise in 1997 about Hong Kong itself.
The metaphor is obvious, though a bit thin beyond its
"We Love Hong Kong" message. Hooked on You is
sometimes quite nostalgic, extolling disappearing local
values and community spirit, and even goes so far as
to imply that most Hong Kong people, in reflection,
would welcome a return to the way things were.
However, that notion is a fantasy,
and the film seems to quietly confirm that sentiment.
People hope for things to remain unchanged, but life
moves on with or without you. The film places weight
on the past, but it also looks to the future hopefully.
No matter what the outcome, there's good in both the
past and the present, and missed chances can still be
looked upon fondly. The bitterness here is noticeably
sweet, a theme that is apparent in all relationships
in the film: between people and Hong Kong, food hawkers
and Fortune Market, and especially Miu and Fishman.
The characters subtly change and grow, each maturing
in their own way, and the actors sell the sentiments
wonderfully. Miriam Yeung has matured far beyond her
ditzy jade girls, and is able to convey emotion with
sometimes just her eyes. Eason Chan may be even better;
the actor manages to be both transparent and opaque
at different times in the film, and never appears to
be less than genuine. The situations in Hooked on
You sometimes veer into cartoony, but the characters
themselves possess real, felt personalities.
The film does have its issues.
It possesses a witty and intelligent script, but some
details end up feeling more cloying than appropriate.
This is especially true towards the later portion of
the film, when the film makes use of happenstance to
suppose that these two star-crossed lovers will continue
to criss-cross all over Hong Kong. The movie seems too
smart for such obvious narrative tricks, and compounds
the contrivance with its "return to Fortune Market"
set piece. Still, the sequence shows us how the characters
have grown, and despite its inherent cheesiness, the
whole entertains in a gratefully satisfying fashion.
Director Law Wing-Cheong, whose labored but effective 2 Become 1 was one of 2006's quiet bright spots,
outdoes himself with Hooked on You. The film
is an accomplishment not because it says anything profound
or especially important (in fact, given its quiet coverage
of the Handover, one could argue that it shouldn't even
be called a Handover film), but because it manages to
surprise, affect, and above all deliver. The film possesses
complex emotions that seem deceptively simple, and gives
us characters that are seemingly worth getting to know.
In the end, Hooked on You asks us to look forward,
and not back, and it's a message that the filmmakers
earn. If Law Wing-Cheong can continue to make commercial
films as satisfying as this one, then Hong Kong Cinema's
future may indeed be brighter. (Kozo, 7-10-2007) |
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