Crossing Hennessy

月满轩尼诗

Hong Kong, 2010, colour, 1.85:1, 108 mins.

Director: An Xi 岸西 [Ivy Ho].

Rating: 6/10.

Long-delayed return by Mainland actress Tang Wei after Lust, Caution is flawed by unfocused direction and a lack of  lead chemistry.

STORY

Wanzai [Wan Chai] district, Hong Kong, the present day. Middle-aged bachelor Jiang Juelai (Zhang Xueyou), who works in the electrical appliances store of his loud-mouthed widowed mother (Bao Qijing), and independent-minded Lao Ailian (Tang Wei), who works across Hennessy Road in the bathroom store of her uncle (Lin Wei), are pushed by both sides into dating. But the laidback Jiang Juelai becomes entangled again with yuppie divorcee Minru (Zhang Keyi) and the serious Lao Ailian is interested only in her jailed boyfriend Huang Haixu (An Zhijie). Meanwhile, autumnal love slowly blooms between Jiang Juelai’s mother and longtime admirer Zeng Jieqing (Li Xiuxian).

REVIEW

[Marking the long-delayed return to the screen by Mainland actress Tang Wei 汤唯, who debuted three years earlier in Lust, Caution 色，戒 (2007),] Crossing Hennessy 月满轩尼诗 is a disappointing directorial follow-up by respected Hong Kong scriptwriter An Xi 岸西 – pen name of He Biwen 何碧雯 [Ivy Ho], who penned Comrades, Almost a Love Story 甜蜜蜜 (1996) – after her intriguing directorial debut, Claustrophobia 亲密 (2008). Instead of that film’s yuppie characters and self-consciously elaborate construction – which sometimes worked and sometimes didn’t – Hennessy focuses on more ordinary working types and adopts a straightforward, more commercial tone. But as a “neighbourhood” ensemble movie, set around the titular road in Hong Kong’s Wanzai [Wan Chai] district, it is short on any geographical or cinematic feel for the area: compare the “neighbourhood” films of Xu Anhua 许鞍华 [Ann Hui] or Fang Yuping 方育平 [Allen Fong] for real atmosphere. Worse, the two lead characters played by Tang and Hong Kong’s Zhang Xueyou 张学友 [Jacky Cheung] are often overshadowed by older, more colourful ones (especially Bao Qijing 鲍起静 [Paw Hee-ching] as the mother of Zhang’s character and Zhu Mimi 朱咪咪 as her quieter sister).

The film’s theme is how love can often come from the most unexpected quarter, and how little things like shared interests may be preferable to heaven-storming romance or sexual bliss. But for this to work between the two lead characters, whose backgrounds are already thinly drawn, there needs to be some remarkable on-screen chemistry – and it just isn’t there, at least in An Xi’s directing of them. Zhang seems to coast along as the almost simple Jiang Juelai, with none of the natural chemistry he showed with Liu Ruoying 刘若英 [René Liu] in the recent Hot Summer Days 全城热恋  热辣辣 (2010); and Tang projects no real feeling or warmth into the enigmatic, rather boorish Lao Ailian, and even moves stiffly. Her remarkable looks and velvety voice still remain to be exploited by a good script and director.

Strangely, some of the dialogue is well below par, especially in scenes between Tang and An Zhijie 安志杰 [Andy On] as her boyfriend, and the feel-good ending (spotted with cameos by names like Zheng Yijian 郑伊健 [Ekin Cheng] and Shao Meiqi 邵美琪 [Maggie Shiu]) seems conventional. An Xi seems more comfortable writing for the yuppie photographer character played by Zhang Keyi 张可颐, though is again let down by her variable sense of how to stage some scenes. Despite all this, the film is still worth a look for older actors Bao, Zhu and Li Xiuxian 李修贤 [Danny Lee], whose sheer experience rises above the shortcomings in script and direction.

CREDITS

Presented by Irresistible Films (HK), Sil-Metropole Organisation (HK). Produced by Irresistible Gamma (HK).

Script: An Xi [Ivy Ho]. Photography: Pan Hengsheng [Poon Hang-sang]. Editing: Kuang Zhiliang. Music: Chu Zhendong [Anthony Chue]. Art direction: Wen Nianzhong [Man Lim-chung]. Costumes: Guo Yanhui. Sound: Nie Jirong. Visual effects: Benny Chen.

Cast: Zhang Xueyou [Jacky Cheung] (Jiang Juelai), Tang Wei (Lao Ailian), Bao Qijing [Paw Hee-ching] (Jiang Juelai’s mother), Li Xiuxian [Danny Lee] (Zeng Jieqing), An Zhijie [Andy On] (Huang Haixu), Zhang Keyi (Minru/Mina Siu), Zhu Mimi (Jiang Juelai’s aunt), Lin Wei (Lao Ailian’s uncle), Guo Feng (Yao), Gill Mohindepaul Singh (Indian), Lu Guanting [Lowell Lo] (Jiang Juelai’s father), Zheng Yijian [Ekin Cheng] (dentist), Zeng Guoxiang [Derek Tsang] (hospital doctor), Shao Meiqi [Maggie Shiu] (marriage registrar), Zhang Yingzi (Lao Ailian’s aunt).

Premiere: Hong Kong Film Festival (Opening Film), 21 Mar 2010.

Release: Hong Kong, 1 Apr 2010.

(Review originally published on Film Business Asia, 18 May 2010.)