City of Desire
Reviewed by YTSL
Some days, I am all eager to write about a film
because I want to spread the good word about its existence. This is
not one of those days. Instead, my main reason for feeling compelled
to pen a review of this Raymond Yip Wai Man helmed offering is to tell people
to not be fooled -- like I unfortunately was -- into thinking that that whose
large cast of, if not A list, at least respectable actors and actresses had
made it look like it might be “Portland Street Blues 2” would be anywhere
close to being as intelligent, sensitive, engrossing and compelling as the
two Triad dramas he had previously directed: I.e., “Portland Street
Blues” and the work entitled “Those Were the Days” whose central character
also is a colorful plus complex member of the “Young and Dangerous” crowd.
To be fair, it’s not as though CITY OF DESIRE is horrendously bad (or even
the worst 2001 effort that I’ve seen -- Instead, that “honor” would go to
“Cop Shop Babes” or “Goodbye Mr. Cool”, one more movie whose cast list made
it look as though it could be a possible new installation of the popular
series that may have concluded with “Born to be the King”). Indeed,
that whose scene-setting opening shots of Macau were quite stunning and attractive
started off well and intriguingly: With the return of its chief protagonist
-- a liberal-minded “modern” woman named Sandra Lui -- who is referred to
by more than one individual as Sap Saam Mui (Sister Thirteen in Cantonese)
-- and is played by Sandra Ng -- from abroad to take over the reins of what
she thought was a successful family business that consisted of not much more
than hotels and other innocent tourist facilities...but soon found out also
encompassed nightclubs (of the kind that had “hostesses” and also bare-breasted
lap dancers) along with the kind of saunas and massage parlours that provided
more than just health club type services.
If only CITY OF DESIRE had focused more on Sandra Ng and the Category IIB
film’s two under-utilized leading men, who come in the impressive form of
the absolutely hunky Alex Fong (whose brooding character is named Johnny)
and the versatile Anthony Wong (playing a less than orthodox member of a
Christian order known as Brother Kam Tai Chi). From my vantage point,
it really ought not have taken all that much to weave a single worthy feature-length
story as well as posit an interesting set of relationships involving:
The woman who was struggling to come to terms with her inherited position
as the head of a morally problematic commercial empire; one of her appointed
lieutanants, who was actually less comfortable than he could make himself
sound about being one of the many individuals who made large amounts of money
from having many an impoverished woman sell her body (and make it available
for the use of a number and variety of men); and a man whose priestly garments
and essentially good soul could not prevent him from -- nor obscure the fact
of his -- lusting after the other sex. And goodness knows that it’s
not as though Sandra Ng, Alex Fong and Anthony Wong would be unable to --
plus have not been known to previously and quite successfully -- carry a
movie.
For some reason though, producer-scriptwriter Manfred Wong elected instead
to throw in a number of other (one-dimensional) characters, a few subplots
plus some unnecessary cameo and/or guest appearances -- by the likes of the
admittedly very sweet looking Kristy Yeung as well as Law Kar Ying, Ronald
Wong, Cheung Tat Ming and Charlie Cho -- into the Lai Yin Fai lensed picture.
Among that which I didn’t think added much to the movie was the segment that
centered on the individuals played by Blackie Ko and Alice Chan. Although
they are not screen presences I can’t stand (unlike certain actors and actresses
I could name but won’t...), I felt that the duo’s appearance in CITY OF DESIRE
undermined the film since their characters’ supposedly sad but romantic story
-- which effectively begins with his rough diamond of a policeman (who is
called Cat) encountering her deaf-mute illegal immigrant (named Man San)
while on a supposedly routine check of one of Sandra Lui’s “entertainment”
facilities -- was truly lame as well as not particularly believable.
Additionally, by itself or if incorporated into a bona fide prostitute drama,
the section of CITY OF DESIRE that focused on a gambling addict named Pepper
(Josie Ho’s character turns out to not only know Brother Kam but also have
been a childhood playmate of Sap Saam Mui) and her prostitute pal, Yo Yo
(who I think was portrayed by Miao Fei Lin), might actually have amounted
to something. In this work though, it only served as sensationalist
plus tragic cautionary tale of two women who are precisely the kind who would
get themselves into a deep hole that they have great difficulty digging out
of together, individually or even with the help of (potentially) powerful
friends in a supposedly godforsaken place like Macau (which Brother Kam likened,
along with Shenzhen, to the Biblical Soddom and Gomorrah).
Two other aspects of CITY OF DESIRE that irritated me quite a bit were Josie
Ho’s part in the proceedings and the hypocrisy of the project as a whole.
With regards to the former: While I respect Ms. Ho as an actress and
her publicly stated decision to not be seen only or primarily as the daughter
of Stanley Ho, it really can be more than a bit difficult for those who know
about her family connections to not find it ironic and incongruous for her
to be playing a poor girl who feels out of place in the ritzy Casino Lisboa
(which Mr. Ho owns along with its adjoining hotel and other prime Macaonese
leisure spots). As for the latter: It should suffice for me to
state that I find it unseemly -- as well as hypocritical -- that a work whose
makers purport to be sympathetic to the ethical conflicts that its main characters
have about Macau’s entertainment business pretty much consisting of gambling
and porn would look to visually appeal for an audience by way of draping itself
in images galore of scantily clad females who do not demand that much in
return for performing the lewd acts that moneyed men desire them to enact.
My rating for this film: 5.0