I am Sorry
Reviewed by YTSL
Dramas about prostitutes constitute a definite
Hong Kong filmic genre. Although the same might not be true with
regards to movies about mistresses (a.k.a. unofficial secondary wives and
concubines), this 1989 Tony Au directed effort is one more of those works
that I have now viewed. Interestingly, while it did garner a HKFA
Best Actress nomination for its lead performer, it still seems to me to
be a far less worthy star vehicle for Carina Lau than the similarly focused
Sylvia Chang helmed "Mary from Beijing" was for Gong Li and Crystal Kwok's"The
Mistress" was for the young but assured Jacqueline Peng.
In all honesty, I feel obliged to register
my shock as well as disappointment that a production graced by the presence
of the charismatic Patricia Ha and Rosamund Kwan in addition to a four
time HKFA Best Actress nominee could be as slapdashingly bad as I AM SORRY
(a.k.a. HER BEAUTIFUL LIFE LIES). This especially so when it also
is realized that that which is listed in the HKMDB as a drama -- but just
comes across more as a laughable, even if not consciously laughter-inducing,
piece of work -- was under the directorial supervision of the man who had
sensitively helmed the atmospheric "Dream Lovers" three years previously.
In all likelihood, these individuals -- and probably
also others in I AM SORRY's cast and crew -- were let down by a terrible
script (which I am going to make sound more logical than it is when I do
such as describe how it is that the movie's five main characters are socially
connected with one another). It definitely didn't help that Carina
Lau's impulsive and aggressive -- as well as terribly bubble-headed plus
perm-haired -- character is one who is neither very sympathetic nor all
that rational in her actions; what with Carol Cheung being a woman who
is not above going up to tell off and pick a fight with a trio of squabbling
strangers who happen to be within earshot of her at a posh restaurant.
In any case, that particular incident was what
brought the also formidable Alice (the character portrayed by Rosamund
Kwan doesn't have that much screen time but prominently figures in the
thoughts of individuals with larger parts in I AM SORRY) and the contrastingly
soft Edgar (Lawrence Ng plays him as a quivery lipped man) into Carol's
consciousness. Soon, despite her actually being the kept woman of
a rich older fellow named Edward Sung (who comes in the form of Kenneth
Tsang -- someone who really seems to have played all manner of men in his
movie career!) and professing more than once in the movie that she is someone
who can only love one male at a time, Carol is consorting with both Edgar
and Edward, at times within a single 24 hour period.
As some people might expect, this state of affairs
proves to be less ideal for all involved, and brings on a series of events
-- to add to the previously many -- in which the movie's lead character
finds herself uttering the phrase that is the film's title. More
than by the way, lest it be assumed that I AM SORRY takes a sexist stance
in terms of it being okay for men but not women to have more than one love
(or lust), it will be pointed out here that: Those of Carol's friends
(two of them played by May Lo and Elaine Kam) -- who have names like Doll
as well as Sabrina and Cindy -- who also have sugar daddies of their own
are not at all adverse to engaging gigolos to service them (for those times
when they know that the main men in their lives are sleeping with their
legal wives). Then there's Carol's neighbor, Sheng Wen Yueh, the
individual who comes across as being the most level headed in this silly
-- if not plain stupid -- offering (who is portrayed with quite a bit of
aplomb by Patricia Ha), being depicted as someone thoroughly at ease with
what seems like a multitude of males flitting in and out of her life.
IMHO, the makers of I AM SORRY had the potential
to paint an insightful, poignant or actually amusing portrait of the lives
of women and men who have less uncommon extra-marital arrangements than
some people would like to think or know is the case. The great problem
seems to be that it tried to be a little of both plus have the kind of
happy ending that cautionary tales ought not to have and truly light-hearted
accounts would enact with greater flamboyance than occurred in this weak
work. Consequently, it turned lines such as "I walk alone unfettered
by men", "Breaking [out of] the cocoon, I see the pretty world" and "Alone
but no longer in a void" in the Sally Yeh song that's heard twice -- at
supposedly key moments -- in the movie into lies, and dramatically loses
out from doing so.
My rating for this film: 3.