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Review
by Kozo: |
Director
Dennis Law (The Unusual Youth) goes back to
the youth romance well for Love @ First Note,
a sometimes agreeable but mostly self-indulgent youth
romance/comedy/drama that marks the starring debut
of hot Hong Kong singer Justin Lo. Known for his fine
singing voice and for never removing his hat, Lo turns
in a likable performance as Kei, an unambitious singer/songwriter
who lives in Tai Po with his seamstress mother (Tien
Niu). Kei is old pals with Kristy (Kary Ng of Cookies),
who dresses all in black and works at a second hand
record store run by odd duck Lobo (Tats Lau). By day,
the two old friends spar and pal around, and by night
they hit the local clubs, where wannabe popstars ply
their unpolished wares. When visiting the clubs along
with Kei and Kristy, the viewer gets a heavy earful
of Cantopop, none of which is subtitled for the Cantonese-deficient.
More on that later.
Kristy develops an attraction
to Tony (Alex Fong Lik-Sun), a rich kid who shops
at Kristy's workplace for old Barry Manilow records.
At the same time, Jack Lee (Keith Lee), lead singer
of the local band Silver Mosquitoes, decides Kristy
must be his. However, Kristy isn't into a self-involved
bastard like Jack, and spurns him defiantly, causing
Jack to vow revenge. Soon after, Tony is asking Kristy
to a semi-upscale shindig, where Jack and some other
upper class kids (including Stephy Tang and Theresa
Fu of Cookies) hang out. But do these upper class
kids have the best intentions towards lower-class
Kristy? And what about Kei? He seems to live his life
bending to Kristy's and everybody else's will. Will
Kei grow a spine? Will Kristy realize that Kei is
really the best guy for her? Will Kristy ever get
her layabout father (Lam Suet) to get off his ass
and go get a job? And what the heck is Miki Yeung
(also of Cookies) wandering around in the background
for?
Love @ First Note
was co-produced by Paco Wong, head honcho of Gold
Label, the record label/artists management company
that currently owns the Cookies, Alex Fong, Justin
Lo, and a bunch of other Hong Kong entertainers. Basically,
we're looking at massive synergy for Love @ First
Note, which corrals a slew of Gold Label performers,
pushes their songs and products, and even tries to
be coy about it. During one scene in a karaoke club,
Kei sings the theme song to Fatal Contact - which was also directed by Dennis Law, produced by
Paco Wong, and stars a bunch of Gold Label performers - after which he talks openly about how Fatal
Contact stars a bunch of Gold Label people, and
even calls the film a "must see". As if
that ultra-obvious plug weren't enough, the film calls
attention to the casting of Miki Yeung as, uh, somebody
in the film. Basically, Miki wanders around with no
discernible purpose until Stephy and Theresa (playing,
quite literally, dumb girls) blatantly ask her what
she's doing in the movie. The answer: ensuring that
Gold Label fans get their fill of Gold Label faces.
To top it all off, there's a cameo by Gold Label superstar
Leo Koo. Yay for marketing!
Cross-sell overload
aside, Love @ First Note does manage some low-key
charm, though it's very reminiscent of the John Hughes
school of filmmaking. Given the situations, Kary Ng's
Kristy could be a stand-in for Molly Ringwald in Pretty
in Pink, with Justin Lo and Alex Fong as the Jon
Cryer and Andrew McCarthy replacements, respectively.
Basically, poor girl with layabout dad flirts with
rich boy, only to feel rejected by upper class society
and fall back upon poor boy. The big differences here
are that the poor girl doesn't seem to remotely care
about ending up with the rich boy, and the poor boy
is one helluva singer. Justin Lo can obviously carry
a tune, and is a likable enough fellow, despite his
major sports fan faux pas of wearing both New York
Yankees and Boston Red Sox gear simultaneously. Kary
Ng offers a more convincing range of expression than
some (though perhaps not all) of her Cookie contemporaries,
but Alex Fong is incredibly wooden in an annoyingly
underwritten role. That the film eventually leans
on his single guy plight to wring some pathos seems
like cheap manipulation at best.
Still, Love @ First
Note gets extra points for eschewing the flashier
Hong Kong locations for New Territories-located Tai
Po. Billed in Lonely Planet as a "hi-tech industrial
center", Tai Po seems to be a more relaxing locale
than the typical crowded youth hangouts, e.g. Mongkok
or Causeway Bay. The location may have seeped a bit
too much into the production, as Love @ First Note
can be maddeningly slow and even listless in execution.
Many scenes go on far too long, and there's a distinct
lack of energy present in Dennis Law's staging and
direction. As a light youth romance, the film has
some pluses, but is overall hard to recommend to the
casual Hong Kong Cinema fan, especially those who
aren't local, i.e. they don't speak the language.
Love @ First Note spends an inordinate amount
of time watching singers simply performing, and some
crucial info actually seems to get dispensed in song
lyrics. Considering that the DVD from Garry's Trading
Co. lacks English subtitles during all the songs,
a deep international audience doesn't seem to be in
the offing for Love @ First Note. That is,
unless you're a rabid Gold Label fan, in which case
the film speaks a universal language. That language:
marketing. (Kozo 2006)
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