Anna Magdalena
This UFO film stars Takeshi Kaneshiro, Aaron Kwok
and Kelly Chan in a modern day HK yuppie love triangle. It struck me as
a sad little film in which love can only be realized in fairy tales and
where people can never really change from what or who they are.
I did not find any of the characters particularly
compelling and kept waiting for Takeshi to break out of his socially repressed
state, but he never can except in his fantasy. But then I never could understand
his strong feelings for Kelly Chan who had a zero personality in this film.
Though not a bad film at all - well directed with
very good quality production values, I don't think many people will feel
satisfied with it’s outcome. The film is broken narrative wise into two
main movements - one the real love triangle that is going on and secondly
a fantasy piece from the mind of Takeshi. The fantasy piece is quite charming,
beautifully filmed and almost uplifting, but by contrast it makes the real
life section all that more mundane and depressing. Lots of fun cameos,
but it is a bad sign when the cameos are the most memorable things about
a film. I recall the mystified look of the theater goers after the lights
came on - I don’t think anyone expected the film to end the way it does.
My rating for this film: 7.0
Reviewed by YTSL
IMHO, there are many things to dislike about
this United Filmmakers Organization (UFO) production. First and foremost
among them is the significant screen time given to someone -- sorry Aaron
Kwok fans! -- who is most emphatically NOT my favorite actor. My
viewing experience was also negatively affected by Kelly Chan's -- at least
until the final forty or so minutes of the film --alternately acting like
she was in a music video, inappropriately exaggeratedly and woodenly, and
often looking like she was staring at and reading from a script or big
cue card that was being held just above and behind the camera. Perhaps
the nadir of this romantic drama (besides close ups of those two people
kissing) were two sequences -- one involving Kwok, Chan and Takeshi Kaneshiro
using their dodgem cars to "kiss" each others'; another of which
featured Kwok and Chan rollerblading -- which seemed like they were scenes
from a teen flick. And it certainly didn't help matters that my videotape
copy of this film had small English subtitles whose bottom half was submerged
for much of the movie.
Yet not only did I persist and watch ANNA MAGDALENA
in its entirety twice in four days but I also actually got quite a bit
of pleasure from doing so both times. Maybe if this had happened
just once, I would have chalked it down to my having been in a particularly
indulgent mood or having a lot of goodwill for Chan and Kaneshiro after
having watched them in the extremely moving "Lost and Found" (A UFO Production
from two years earlier). Since it happened two times though, my intimation
is that there are aspects and sections of this Cantopop star-filled film
which more than compensate for its obvious faults.
Searching for what I liked -- nay, loved -- about
this offering, I would have had to been blind and deaf to not appreciate
that: The cinematography (by Peter Pau; who also worked on "The Bride
with White Hair") is truly sumptuous when not magical; and the musical
selections (which largely consist of music by Johan Sebastian Bach and
songs – set to the tune of the "Minuet in G" that can be found in his "Selections
from a Notebook for ANNA MAGDALENA Bach" -- by George Lam and Kelly Chan)
are quite wonderful and catchy, inspired even. Although they are
already obviously good in what are designated as the creatively designed
movie's first three movements (two single strands which are named after
Yau Muk Yan and Mok Man Yee, Kwok's and Chan's characters respectively;
followed by a duet for or by them), they -- and the production as a whole
-- really come into their own in the last "variations" movement or section
(a large portion of which was filmed in Vietnam).
Additionally, it actually does help matters that
Aaron Kwok's lazy, parasitical and narcissistic character IS meant to be
annoying (as well as inexplicably attractive to women), and that Kelly
Chan is really just there to strike poses and look beautiful for the first
three quarters of the film. At the very least, this helps one feel
sorry for Takeshi Kaneshiro's character, a gentle piano-tuner named Chan
Kar Fu who is as unable to make romantic moves as to play tunes on
pianos. But not too sorry, since he actually has at least one female
admirer plus someone (Eric Tsang is among the notable personalities --
including Jackie Cheung, Josie Ho, Leslie Cheung and Anita Yuen -- who
makes welcome cameo appearances in this movie) trying to fix him up with
another woman. Also, unlike aspiring writer Yau, he actually manages
to produce a novel on his first attempt.
Chan Kar Fu's quirky yet touching tale of how
it is that some people find their Mok Man Yees (and others don't) is presented
and brought to life in the excellent fourth and final movement of ANNA
MAGDALENA. In this story within a story, Takeshiro Kaneshiro and
Kelly Chan take on the roles of two grownup orphans (dubbed "the XO Pair"
after the marks they get in school!) who go to a haunted locale to look
for gold and find it along with a ghostly presence who asks them to convey
a message to his love. The duo not only do so but also end up trying
to make careers out of bearing love notes -- in musical form, with varying
success -- to others.
The first time I watched this polished -- but
not slick -- movie, I did feel (like Brian) that an essentially wishful
last segment made the earlier "real" life and world portions of ANNA MAGDALENA
seem rather shallow and pathetic. The second time around though,
knowing what was coming at the end of the film, the other sections felt
much more wistful and understandable. In fact, the entire offering
almost began to seem Wong Kar Waish; in terms of its being genuine, layered,
reflective and sprinkled with thoughts that appear to be made lightly and
so obvious once made, yet needed someone to state aloud to be actually
realized. In summation: Although this 1998 work may not be as good
as some other UFO Productions (notably "He's a Woman, She's a Man" and
"Who's the Woman, Who's the Man?"), it does nothing to affect this Hong
Kong moviephile's opinion that this company's very recognizable logo has
come to be a veritable stamp of quality.
My rating for the film: 7.5