Headlines
Reviewed by YTSL
Most overseas Hong Kong film fans only know
about the HKSAR’s Chinese language newspapers by way of the entertainment
reports that Sanney Leung and Jerry Chan translate into English and post
on their websites for our benefit. Reading their (in)famous references
to “two points”, “flower vase roles” and “jade babes”, the sense one can
get is of the territory’s reporters generally belonging much more to the
ranks of the “stalkerazzi” and “gutter press” than that of respectable
broadsheets. This negative gossip-mongering image of those who work
in the news(paper) industry is not helped by there being few – let alone
particularly positive – depictions of journalists in Hong Kong movies (unlike
with, say, police officers, Triad members, mothers and even bakers as well
as chefs).
Despite its lead trio consisting of a very clean
cut looking individual (in the form of Daniel Wu), an established Cantopop
star (though it will be granted that Emil Chow doesn’t have the “pretty
boy” looks of many of his contemporaries, let alone the representatives
of the newer generation that has recently come along to challenge the established
Sky Kings) and a TV actress with a considerable fan base (in the person
of Maggie Cheung Ho Yee), HEADLINES is far from the cinematic equivalent
of an expensively put together glossy magazine. Instead, it is one
China Star Entertainment Group and One Hundred Years of Film Company co-production
which surely was more modestly budgeted and no frills styled than those
which come under such as the Milkyway Image aegis. Indeed, that whose
other producers are the lesser known Sundy and Nam Yin Production Companies
seems to have a consciously “ordinary folks” focus as well as straightforward
presentation mode which successfully conveys the sense that the persons
who are shown going about their usually unglamorous business and lives
in the movie aren’t too different from their real life counterparts.
With assertions like “We are a news agency.
We don’t educate”, HEADLINES doesn’t initially look like it will be a film
that’s going to show the better side of those whose job is to provide people
day in and out with readable information about their world. Indeed,
as we follow such as a rookie intern -- who has just returned from the
U.S., and is prone to spout out English phrases a la Michael Fitzgerald
Wong – named Peter Wong going about his assigned business, we see him rather
painfully learning that there’s more dirt, sweat and blood involved in
the task of “follow(ing) the truth to find the lies” than his college professors
divulged. As a worldly scribe cum photographer who goes by the nickname
of Sorrow points out pretty early on, among the arguably lesser concerns
that need to also be taken into account by those who hope to survive in
this highly competitive business are those of deadlines, sales, and headlines
(attractive ones of which can make a mediocre article look good, unattractive
ones of which can make a great article look bad). Especially as Ross
Clarkson’s camera trails and chronicles a dogged journo like Joey’s attempt
to develop an interesting story out of a small detail which had not caught
the eye of less observant others, we also get shown how those who are expected
to produce at least three articles a week for the Hong Kong Daily News
– and presumably other newspapers like it – have to be willing to lie as
well as venture into the underbelly of society to get what they want and
need.
Almost invariably though, the further along
we go into that whose (longer) Chinese title translates into English as
“People of the HEADLINES”, the more it becomes apparent that things are
never as black and white as they might first seem. As Daniel Wu’s
Peter Wong character discovers, even the easiest of assignments – in this
case, the supposedly routine investigation of a relatively minor car accident
– can bring on unanticipated complications (and even a physical assault
on his person). Ditto re his effort to do good as well as do a good
reporting job. In the case of Emil Chow’s Sorrow character, ethical
dilemmas come about when, in the course of covering a jewelry show, he
learns more about one of its models (the Puerto Rican identified as Nancy
Sing), one of the organizers (a Mr. Ricky Chan) and the senior police officer
in charge of its security (Officer Mak is played by Wayne Lai) than he
probably retrospectively would have liked to have done.
Meanwhile, the predicament that comes along for
Maggie Cheung Ho Yee’s Joey character is less the product of her electing
to masquerade as a social worker to the expelled schoolboy who she tracked
down by going to his grandmother’s dwellings and far more a result of her
taking to him as a person (rather than just as the source of an interesting
story about the Triad presence in Hong Kong’s schools and among the local
youth). Lest Joey’s emotional attachment to Ho Wai Keung be stereotypically
perceived by some as that which was inevitable, given her female nature,
here’s pointing out that: Peter also obviously cares more for the
focus of his first newspaper article(s) – a plucky orphan lass named Yuen
Chi Wai (played by Grace Yip) and her two younger brothers – than he is
professionally obliged to; and Sorrow is unlike another reporter portrayed
by Simon Loui in worrying about how his reporting will impact the innocent
loved ones of those whose guilt probably do deserve to be revealed for
all the world to see.
Those who conclude, upon reading this (far into
the) review, that HEADLINES is not a film that puts an accent on the sensationalistic
are correct in their surmization. One would be wrong, however, to
consequently believe that it is a boring cinematic piece. Although
not greatly memorable as a whole, the generally workmanlike effort still
most definitely had some startling moments that caused this (re)viewer
to alternately gasp or almost forget to breathe upon encountering them
while taking in this Leo Heung helmed offering.
My rating for the film: 6.