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