Miss Du Shi Niang
Reviewed by YTSL
As a scriptwriter as well as playwright, Raymond
To has few peers in Hong Kong. To be sure, there are some individuals
with a larger number of movie scriptwriting credits than him (including
Wong Jing and the late Barry Wong). However, few others are in possession
of as illustrious a scriptwriting record as he whose 30 film scriptwriting
credits include ones for “Shanghai Blues”, “Peking Opera Blues”, “I Have
a Date with Spring”, “Hu-Du-Men” and “The Mad Phoenix”), and whose directorial
career began in 2001 with “Forever and Forever” (an AIDs melodrama starring
HKFA Best Actress, Sylvia Chang, whose script also was written by Raymond
To).
For his third directorial effort, Raymond To has
chosen to bring to the silver screen a period prostitute drama cum cautionary
tale about the seeking of true love that he had originally written as a
play. MISS DU SHI NIANG’s titular character (who is played by a former
Miss Hong Kong, Michelle Reis) is a Ming Dynasty courtesan whose beauty
is famed far and wide, and someone who, consequently, can afford to pick
her clients as well as charge a premium for her services. Yet while
other “chicken” in her Mamasan’s “coop” aspire to her high earning position,
she -- who is rich enough to afford her own maidservant but still is unable
to purchase her independence without the help of at least one other --
dares to dangerously dream, instead, of finding a Mr. Right who will fall
for her and take her away from this morally dubious and spiritually empty
life. However, when this search leads her to a callow youth (played
by Daniel Wu), one cannot help but question her judgment plus taste in
men, even while admiring her resolve to realize her ambitions to be a good
man’s legitimate wife and real life partner.
The subject-to-sudden-mood-swings MISS DU SHI
NIANG makes little attempt to hide its theatrical provenance. For
one thing, and as with “I Have a Date with Spring” (though actually less
so than another period prostitute drama in which its female star appeared
-- i.e., Hou Hsiao-Hsien’s “Flowers of Shanghai”), the majority of its
scenes take place indoors. For another, certain of its key characters
are wont to break “the fourth wall” and turn to address the audience as
well as face the camera head on. Additionally, there’s a very “stagy”
feeling about such as the dance performances ostensibly performed by the
prostitutes for the benefit of potential clients but also the pep talks-turned-rallies
that take place before they head off to get as much money as they can out
of the hedonistic men who have entered the brothel in search of sexual
gratification.
Although MISS DU SHI NIANG takes it name from
a legendary 17th century personality, the film’s overall sense of artifice
conspires to make its events come across as taking place in an alternate
universe rather than past historical reality. IMHO, this sense cannot
help but be exacerbated by the 2003 effort’s possessing a very contemporary
looking trio of main performers. For starters, Lydia Shum’s glasses
are out of place and their presence on her prominent round face unexplained
even when hardly unnoticeable. As for Daniel Wu and Michelle Reis:
Not only have the Asian-American fellow and the Portuguese-Chinese damsel’s
noses looked bigger -- and un-Chinese --as when they are in the same (period)
picture as each other but, try as hard to as they both may have done, this
movie’s lead actor and actress have a very modern air about them that their
historical costumes and hair-pieces seem only to have highlighted rather
than managed to disguise.
While it may not seem ideal in theory, the feeling
that it’s all a “put on” show sometimes can work in MISS DU SHI NIANG’s
favor. With her alternately twinkly and steely eyed Dame character
sometimes appearing to take this twist-filled work’s audience into her
confidence to a degree that’s rather novel for a fictional film character
to do, the larger than life Lydia Shum, in particular, looks adept at taking
advantage of this situation. At the same time though, this studied
state of affairs appears to make it harder for any of the offering’s characters
to appear 100% believable and truly sincere at any given time. Accordingly,
Michelle Reis and Daniel Wu -- who already display a disappointingly distinct
lack of chemistry in their interactions with each other -- may have had
more obstacles than usual to their bids to make their characters come across
as worthy of others’ trust as well as sympathy.
As regular visitors to this site may know (even
if a rabid Daniel Wu fan who once sent me hate mail evidently did not),
this (re)viewer might well have a greater tolerance for this offering’s
lead actress and actor than most. Some past efforts in which Ms.
Reis demonstrated to me that she was more than just a pretty face are “Swordsman
II” and “Fallen Angels” as well as “Flowers of Shanghai”. Similarly,
I felt that Master Wu displayed a quiet but charismatic presence in his
debut-making “Bishonen...” that seemed to promise much. If truth
be told though, there were times during my viewing of MISS DU SHI NIANG
when I was moved to think that this Clifton Ko production -- some of whose
scenes contain lengthy, speech-type pieces of dialogue -- would have immeasurably
benefited from having had a more convincing main actress and actor, never
mind ones blessed with the dramatic caliber and depth of a Josephine Siao
Fong Fong, Sally Yeh, Sylvia Chang or Brigitte Lin.
My rating for the film: 6.
Pictures spotted and made off with at http://www.mov3.com/trailer/miss_du_shi_niang/photo.html
