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Review
by Kozo: |
A trio of single Hong
Kong girls reassess their lives in the fun, if somewhat
aimless urban comedy Single Blog. Rain Li leads
the pack as Kitty, a reserved young woman who spies
her boyfriend (Derek Tsang) snogging someone else,
leading to the expected break up and oodles of self-doubt,
self-pity, and finally self-realization. Kitty eventually
gets some girl power lessons from flirty roommate
Vivian (Jo Koo), and looks to remake herself into
a girl who just wants to have fun. Meanwhile, Vivian
is comfortable in her promiscuous, hedonistic lifestyle,
until she falls under the spell of the dorky, but
utterly likable Don (Chan Fai-Hung). She ends up pretending
to be a chaste, reserved girl (or basically her roommate
Kitty) in order to hook Don and his nerdy ways. Finally,
third roommate May (Monie Tung) suffers a breakup
and spirals into moodiness, only to reawaken thanks
to the attentions of her new female boss Elley (Anya).
May ends up tackling that age-old question: which
side should she play for? Should she give into Elley's
advances, thus providing audiences with some female-on-female
heavy petting?
In a rarity for a Hong Kong
movie, Single Blog gets its starring girls
into plenty of potentially revealing situations, frequently
taking advantage of their photogenic qualities without
actually revealing anything. Red-blooded males should
be paying attention, as Jo Koo and Rain Li are more
than easy on the eyes, while cute Monie Tung and the
long-absent Anya are still worthy eye candy. Having
these girls fake sexual situations is an obvious plus
for sex-starved audiences, as this sort of fan service
has been all but absent in the ultra-chaste Hong Kong
Cinema of the 21st Century. Heterosexual ladies fear
not: there's male eye candy too. Raymond Wong Ho-Yin
shows up to overact shirtless as Kin Ma, a sleazy
fellow who sleeps with Vivian on the eve of his wedding
night, and later leads Donald to a night club where
they conveniently run into the starring trio of girls
who are trying out the club's services for themselves.
Andrew Lin makes a suave appearance as the owner of
a local pub, who teaches the somewhat inexperienced
Kitty how to really please a man - and also herself.
Soon Kitty is a swinging sex machine, leading to plenty
of episodic sexual interludes (with members of EO2
no less), as well as the eventual reevaluation of
what all these singles escapades mean.
Purportedly, it does all
mean something, and Single Blog sometimes tries
to put that forth through fourth wall-breaking narration
scenes where the three girls talk diary-like about
how their friends are faring in the big bad singles
world. It's questionable if the film really accomplishes
anything that telling, however. Single Blog recalls early nineties sex/relationship comedies like Tom, Dick, and Hairy or Why Wild Girls,
in that it mixes observations on modern romance with
randy sexual situations, likable stars, and sometimes
some fully-clothed raunch. The mix is of course welcome,
but more needs to happen than just sex and pseudo-existential
musings. Characters need to make felt changes, and
there needs to be the sense that something is both
lost and gained by these characters' seemingly random
sexual escapades. Single Blog stumbles in that
area, as it seems to subordinate the most telling
aspects of its material for quick laughs and frequent
raunchy action. Usually, the film seems more concerned
with moving from one extended set piece to another,
with reflection being only a quick afterthought.
Not that there's anything
wrong with that. Single Blog is purportedly
not an original screenplay creation, and was instead
based on numerous single experiences shared on Chinese-language
blogs. This attention to passed-along reality can
be seen in the film's structure, which doesn't possess
a narrative flow as much as it does a blocky set of
sketches, each detailing some romantic misadventure
likely told from person A to person B on some forum
somewhere. The result of this is that some of the
romantic misadventures go on far too long. There's
little crosscutting here - we're frequently stuck
with one of the girls for an age, before her sequence
ends and we finally join another one. Sometimes we
spend an inordinate amount of time with a seemingly
fringe supporting character, and some characters disappear
for long stretches before they finally show up again.
The effect can be disjointed, but the film does channel
some sense of life through its selective attention
on characters and situations. Life is not a Point
A to Point B journey, and Single Blog definitely
isn't one either.
And even if the film isn't
very conclusive, at least it's all in good fun. Single
Blog is often fun and interesting, which is half
the battle for this sort of urban relationship comedy.
Director Lee Po-Cheung keeps things light and frequently
funny, and the actors acquit themselves well with
the sometimes broad material. Rain Li delivers a convincingly
type-busting performance, and Monie Tung is effective
despite her character being shafted for screentime
or development. Jo Koo is probably the standout here,
and is dynamite as the sexy, trouble-making Vivian.
There's certainly some enjoyment in seeing this much
sexual innuendo onscreen in a Hong Kong movie; it
seems like Hong Kong movies have not tried to be sexy
since the last decade, and seeing actresses at least
attempt sexiness is a welcome thing. Single Blog doesn't cover tough questions or tough answers, and
seems content to glide along the surface of its subject
matter. Still, we don't always need depth. While not
very substantial, Single Blog is fun, lively,
and surprising enough to warrant a look. (Kozo 2007) |
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