Feel 100% . . . Once
More
Reviewed by YTSL
Recently, a friend told me that he was a fan
of Joe Ma’s movies. I, on the other hand, am unable to share his
opinion re this matter. This is not to say that I have disliked all
the offerings that the prolific Hong Kong film-maker has directed, scripted
and/or produced. However, to my mind, his output -- which has included
such as suspenseful crime dramas like “Nude Fear” along with the thoroughly
romantic likes of “First Love Unlimited” --has been distinctly uneven in
quality. Take, for example, the two efforts that starred Miriam Yeung
as a character named L. K. Fong for which he was the scriptwriter cum helmer
(and, in the case of the 2001 work, also its producer) in “Dummy Mommy
Without a Baby” and “Love Undercover”: The former of which I was not particularly
impressed by; whereas the latter struck me as being quite charming in parts
as well as amusing.
Then there’s the first and second of his “Feel
100%” films: Both of which have Ekin Cheng, Sammi Cheng, Gigi Leung and
Eric Kot in their cast -- and Joe Ma as their director plus, together with
Matt Chow, co-scriptwriter -- but otherwise are not really connected with
each other; what with these four individuals essaying characters with different
names in the two relationship movies that were released within three months
of each other back in 1996. If one were to judge them in terms of
commercial success, the performance of FEEL 100%...ONCE MORE -- whose total
local box office takings is listed as being HK$15,887,030 on one page of
the HKMDB (even while the movie's individual entry on that site alternatively
states that it garnered a far more impressive HK$40,861,655) -- appears
to not be that far away from the HK $20,805,282 grossing original "Feel
100%" offering.
In view of this, my opinion that the earlier effort
actually was the more entertaining -- as well as much less meandering and,
consequently, generally time-wasting -- of this pair of box office hits
is one that looks to go against that of a whole bunch of professional movie
reviewers. In any case, I also don’t really buy Joe Ma’s assertion that
the hardly “heavy” or substantial Christmas offering whose basic plot formula
(of “A loves B, B loves C, C loves D”) he got from “St. Elmo’s Fire” --
as opposed to the first, whose inspiration was John Hughes’ “Some Kind
of Wonderful” -- is all that obviously a more mature movie than its summery
plus fluffy feeling predecessor (Once more, cf. the Joe Ma chapter of Miles
Wood’s “Cine East”); although I might grant that, unlike “Feel 100%”, FEEL
100%...ONCE MORE does possess at least one (fairly) grown-up acting personality
in the memorably monikered Chingmy Yau’s equally distinctively named Gobby
Li.
Still, TV advertising model Gobby probably only
seems to be as adult as she does as a result of FEEL 100%...ONCE MORE’s
other main characters coming across as being very much on the childish
side. After all, she is one of those who gets shown in one scene
of this Golden Harvest and B.O.B. co-production uninhibitedly playing drinking
games -- whose stakes involve the removal of items of clothing as well
as drinking up to a bottle of beer or regularly sized alcoholic drink at
the conclusion of each challenge -- with people who appear to be perfect
strangers to her, for the most part (And this, the audience later learns,
when she -- who never really looked all that sickly -- might have been
on more than one type of medication). AND, like had previously occurred
in “Boys Are Easy”, the woman portrayed by Chingmy Yau falls for a younger
(acting) man who comes in the form of Ekin Cheng (and, in this movie, is
named Marco)!
Alternatively, Gobby’s not someone who would get
into a major spat over what does seem like a mere trifle with a lover while
in the middle of a foreign city that prompts them to huffily go their separate
ways, at least for a time (like Ekin Cheng’s and Sammi Cheng’s chemistry-less
lead characters did early on in FEEL 100%...ONCE MORE). Neither does
she seem likely to decide on her appointed wedding day that she’s unready
plus not willing to marry (as Andy Hui’s irresponsible Alan did near the
beginning of this far too contrived situation filled work) nor look to
be the kind of insecure individual who would force the person she loves
to look more like her and/or a(nother) movie’s character (the way that
the decidedly homely looking Cheung Tat Ming’s Siu Man did with Gigi Leung’s
sweet Emma). Furthermore, the thirty-something year old woman doesn’t
appear to be the type of character who seems adapt at tendering all manner
of romantic advice to others but then proceeds to screw up even a simple
conversation with the person of her dreams (like was the case with Eric
Kot’s actually not all that monstrous Monster).
Perhaps because her Gobby role was more sympathetically
written than the bulk of the characters in this movie (or maybe due entirely
to the positive attributes of the actress who essayed her), Chingmy Yau’s
presence in the offering was most definitely the highlight of FEEL 100%...ONCE
MORE. IMHO, Gigi Leung also deserves some credit; not least for her
ability to keep a straight face when she was called upon to effectively
reprise her geeky “Full Throttle” part in a section of this film that parodied
that far superior Derek Yee helmed work. At any rate, it is almost
entirely due to the efforts of this often under-rated duo -- as opposed
to others who had more screen-time, notably a surprisingly not (yet) charismatic
Sammi Cheng -- that I didn’t wind up feeling like a complete ass for thinking
that this DKNY advertising strewn offering would be able to supply me with
some 90 minutes worth of unlabored as well as easy entertainment.
My rating for the film: 5.5
Reviewed by Brian
One of those awful cutsie yuppie HK films starring
lots of young, attractive people such as Sammi Cheng and Ekin Cheng. Such
problems they have. Who cares. Of course there is lots of Chingmy and she
is wonderful but still its not enough to save this cringe worthy film.
A movie for HK pea pods.
My rating for this film: 5.0