The Other Side of Gentleman
This 1984 effort comes at an interesting point
in Brigitte Lin's career - a crossroads of sorts. For nearly the entire
decade of the 1970's she had been the major female actress in Taiwan. These
Taiwanese films are a far cry from the Hong Kong films that Brigitte was
later to become legendary for, but at that time her dramas and light comedies
were tremendously popular throughout the Chinese communities around the
world. These films are basic and predictable - and are carried entirely
by the luminescent beauty and radiant personality of Brigitte. Both mothers
and men adored her the perfect daughter-in-law, the perfect wife, the
perfect woman.
There were a few factors though that drove Brigitte
to follow a different career path. First there was a romantic entanglement
that caused Brigitte to leave Taiwan and live in the United States for
a short period of time. Secondly, the style of films that Brigitte had
been making were going out of fashion and the entire Taiwanese film industry
was going into a slump that it has never really come out of. With the exception
of some curious films (rumored to be triad requested) for Taiwanese director
Chu Yen Ping, in the early 80's Brigitte began her transition to Hong Kong,
but it wasn't an easy one. Though Brigitte appeared in some high profile
films - she was more a major supporting actress than the star as she had
been in Taiwan. In 1983 she appeared in Zu Warriors and All the Wrong Spies
and though she is dazzling in both, her characters play somewhat second
fiddle to the likes of Yuen Biao, Meng Hoi, Moon Lee in Zu and ignominiously
to George Lam and Teddy Robin in Spies. In 1985 she was secondary to Jackie
Chan and Maggie Cheung in Police Story and it wasn't really until her charismatic
turn in Peking Opera Blues in 1986 that she was able to reclaim her status
as a great star and a great actress.
Tsui Hark somehow knew that this willowy actress
from the Taiwanese weepies had a backbone of steel resolve and could play
larger than life characters - and he utilized her in brilliant fashion
in Zu and Peking Opera Blues (and of course in some later films) - but
the same can not be said of Ringo Lam. The Other Side of Gentleman was
only Ringo's second film and he clearly had not found his style yet. Of
course, if you look at his future output, it seems clear that he is not
a woman's director - and looks to be much more comfortable with his male
actors and male characters. For my money he makes bad use of Brigitte in
this film - frustratingly so at times - and focuses much of the film on
Alan Tam. Brigitte has a fair amount of screen time but her character is
always shown in relation to Tam's - as if it has no life of its own. Yet
hers is clearly the more interesting character. Criminally, Lam hardly
has a close-up of Brigitte in the entire film her trademark in her Taiwanese
films where the camera often comes to a dead heart shocked stop and simply
worships her face.
The film begins as a light fluffy comedy that
portends an enjoyable little farce, but as it progresses it slowly becomes
more serious and leaves its charms behind at the roadside. As is often
Lam's inclination, he delves into the subject of obsession, but while he
later had actors such as Lau Ching-wan and Chow Yun Fat to explore this
with, here he is stuck with Alan Tam. An Alan Tam obsessed reminded me
of a petulant Mouskateer looking for his misplaced ears. I kept hoping
Annette Funicello would show up and tell him to get a grip and put him
over her knee. Whenever Brigitte is in a scene with him she towers over
him charismatically like the Colossus of Rhodes over a mouse. Alan Tam
is simply not Brigitte worthy.
In this film Brigitte is participating in a university
psychology experiment. The premise of the group is that the right woman
can break a man of his playboy tendencies and by utilizing certain psychological
pressure points can make the man a contributing and responsible member
of society. In other words, emasculate him. Why they would need to test
this theorem is a mystery to me all they need do is look around at all
the miserable married men in the world. The test subject is happy go lucky
Alan Tam, but after rejecting a number of female candidates they realize
that the perfect woman is in their own group Brigitte. She blushes like
a schoolgirl, but is soon happily buying new clothes and adorning the tricks
of the seduction trade makeup and an irresistible pout.
Alan of course doesnt stand a chance he is
swept up like a tidal wave and is soon madly in love with Brigitte. For
Brigitte though this is only an experiment rather a cruel one actually
- and she is engaged to a university professor. Now this is where the audience
is supposed to in true screwball tradition root for Brigitte to dump
the stiff fiancé and fall in love with Alan. The problem though
is that Alan is such an annoying git (and as I mentioned totally un-Brigitte
worthy) that I wanted her to stick with the professor. Its like rooting
for Ralph Bellamy against Cary Grant, but rooting for Alan would be as
perverse as wanting Cubby to end up in bed with Annette.
My rating for this film: 5.0
DVD Information:
Distributed by Media Asia/Mega Star
The transfer is excellent - especially for
one this old.
Letterboxed
Cantonese and Mandarin language tracks
8 Chapters
The subtitles are Chinese, English, Thai, Vietnamese,
Spanish or none.
There is a trailer for this film - and ones
for Cupid One, All the Wrong Spies and Esprit D' amour.