Love Correction (2000)


	Love Correction		Return to Review Archive - L
	Year:	2000	Athena Chu and Nick Cheung
	Director:	Marco Mak Chi-Sin
	Producer:	Lee Siu-Kei
	Cast:	Nick Cheung Ka-Fai, Athena Chu Yan, Monica Chan Fat-Yung, Amanda Lee Wai-Man, Tats Lau Yi-Tat, Emily Kwan Bo-Wai, Yuen King-Tan, Chapman To Man-Chat, Fast Beat, Slow Beat, Gabriel Harrison, Lee Siu-Kei
	The Skinny:	Reasonably entertaining comedy-fantasy features a winning plotline and some decent turns by Athena Chu and Nick Cheung. Sadly, strange direction, weird music, annoying side characters and random cheesiness get in the way.
	Review by Kozo:	Athena Chu stars as Emma, a thirty year-old OL who's engaged to her young boss Leo. One day she picks up a coin dropped by co-worker and IT supervisor Anson (Nick Cheung). She thinks the coin will bring her good luck, but she's sadly mistaken. The coin is actually a harbinger of bad luck, and her life proceeds to fall apart piece by piece. She loses her job, gets involved in a suspicious compromising position with Anson (who appears to be a sleazy geek type), and even appears to destroy her engagement and Leo's future with the company. It's enough to make a girl go suicidal. Thankfully, she gets a second chance. Wacky movie circumstances give Emma the opportunity to replay the last few days of her life. Armed with the knowledge of what she thinks went wrong, she resolves to do things differently to secure her desired future with Leo. However, in replaying the last few days, she comes to understand that things may not be what they seem. Anson may not be such a bad guy (duh), and the company and her relationship with Leo may not have been what she suspected. And, what happened the first time out may not have been so bad. This minor comedy-fantasy goes the Groundhog Day route by giving its protagonist the chance to redo a stretch of time, thus correcting the mistakes they made the first time around. The plotline is a winning one, as are Athena Chu and Nick Cheung. Cheung gets to be a deceptively likable guy, and for once doesn't overdo it. And Chu turns in a performance that actually appears to have some depth. Considering the fact that this is a commercial fantasy-comedy, the actors turn in surprising work. There's some nice sentiment hidden in here. Unfortunately, what surrounds that sentiment are questionable filmmaking choices, occasionally clunky exposition, weird music and annoying side characters. Monica Chan shows up in a bothersome performance as Porsch, Emma's co-worker and pal. Even worse, the screwy radio tag-team of Fast Beat and Slow Beat function as a bizarre Greek Chorus. They sing-song important plot developments in an annoyingly cheesy way, which only seems to stop the movie cold. Also, questionable plot developments arise which seem unnecessary. There seem to be some worthy emotions in this flick, but they get buried beneath bizarre screenwriting that feels remarkably cheap. Director Marco Mak has turned in some decent work before, but he doesn't have much of a handle on subtlety. A more even, subdued touch might have served Love Correction better, and the script could have used more consistency. There's still some decent stuff to be had here—especially if you like either Athena Chu or Nick Cheung—but you have to wade through a lot to find it. As it is, the film is cheap, crappy, but not entirely unworthy entertainment. (Kozo 2000/2003)
	Availability:	DVD (Hong Kong) Region 0 NTSC Universe Laser Widescreen Cantonese and Mandarin Language Tracks Removable English and Chinese Subtitles

		image courtesy of www.mov3.com
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