Chinese Box

I have seen this film three times now and it just seems to get better. Gong Li and Jeremy Irons were fabulous along with Maggie Cheung who played a fascinating character. The street scenes I thought really enhanced the ambience of the film and plot. Congrats to all who were involved in this film.

I was unprepared for the wonderful experience this film affords. The metaphor is striking and acceptable. Wang catches the bittersweet essence of the changeover, both at the specific and the generic level.

Li, Irons, and Cheung are superb. The movie is a cornucopia of visual delights. In fact, it probably requires repeat viewing to fully absorb the totality of its impact.

Thank you, Mr.Wang, for a truly unusual piece of work.

sasmd2@pol.net

Much has already been said about the film itself. Here are some comments regarding the portrayal of Hong Kong. An early comment was saying that this film makes Hong Kong look dirty and cramped.

Well, having lived in Hong Kong (in several different areas) I have to say that what the film shows is reality. I was paying about US$1,000 per month for a small room about 10 x 15 feet in Hong Kong (Tin Hau area) in 1996. It was not even a really nice place. Hong Kong is very expensive to live in.

It is also a very dirty and polluted place compared to cities in the West. The director of the film was not making this up.

By reading this you may think I hated it there, well it rates as one of my favorite cities in the world. It has a lot of charm.

By the way, the movie isn't bad and worth a look.

I don't know what's wrong with you people, or where stupid Hong Kong nationalism comes into this. I see movies that show lousy parts of Boston, and I don't go whining about it on web sites. The story is extremely moving, Hong Kong seemed fascinating, there was amazing imagery and chemistry between Irons and Li. I was blown away both times I saw it. I highly recommend Chinese Box.

The world is changing around the characters in 'Chinese Box'. The screen time focuses on the six months between the New Year 1997 and the end of the British rule in Hong Kong. It's also the time that is left for John, the principal character of the film, a freelance journalist trying to store on film and in words the transition and dying of leukemia. It is the time when not only the world is changing in an unknown direction, but also when John may or may not find the fulfilling of his great love to Vivian, a beautiful Chinese bartender with a dubious past, herself in love with a third, Chinese man.

The story is a combination between culture clash movies intertwined with love stories a la 'Shogun' with love stories in the shade of a crumbling world as in 'Casablanca'. It is to the credit of the director that despite a little too simplistic and explicit romantic intrigue he succeeds to bring to screen and combine a little of the charm of both genres in the right dosage. One may wonder where did Wayne Wang's career go lately and why he rather picked to do trashy films as 'Maid in Manhattan'.

The strength of the film and what makes it survive well the decade since its realization resides however in the rendition of the city, of its infinite colors and smells, of the crowd and the noise, of its hopes, fears and dreams in the wake of the falling under Communist rule. Jeremy Irons is perfect as he will ever be, Li Gong is an enigmatic Chinese Hepburn, and Ruben Blades and Maggie Chang fill in two memorable supporting roles and another lateral story that fits well in the mosaic. 'Chinese Box' catches both a moment to remember in history and a beautiful love story to remember as well, on the background of a world in transition to an unknown destination.