| | | | Links | | |
R E V I E W
Flyin Dance
Mei Ah / 2001 / 89 minutes
Directed by Jin Guo-ChaoWith Jordan Chan, Ma Qian-shan, Zhang Zhen, Shu Qi
B A C K G R O U N D : director, in cinemas, recent and related filmsHere's a mystery of a movie. With the invaluable Hong Kong Movie Database currently unavailable, the only information I could locate is that the DVD was released in August 2001.
Take note up front, however, that both the front and back cover art (with the smiling Shu Qi prominently featured along with a pleasant picture of a pier leading into a body of water) is misleading, as is the English-language title itself.
M O V I E : plot, performances, production, rating
Plot: Two roommates lead very different romantic lives. Both like to meet women over the Internet, but A-Tai prefers playmates (brief affairs) while Tsia-Chung (whose misleading computer screen name is Sleazy-Tsai) is searching for a soulmate. They take dance lessons (and meet a couple of nice girls). It's not clear what they do to support themselves, or if they are students. Tsia-Chung finally meets a long-time online correspondent with the screen name of "Flyindance" (think three words, fly-in-dance, as in "I dream of being able to fly through the air while dancing) and they begin dating in the real world. Meanwhile, A-Tai enjoys a dalliance with Siu Yu, a leading dancer at the Art Institute, but she breaks up with him when Tsia-Chung exposes A-Tai as a womanizer. A-Tai moves on, but still longs for Siu Yu. All these events lead up to a fateful New Year's Eve dance to celebrate the year 2000.
Performances: For my money, the lead actress, Ma Qian-shan, gives a very fine performance covering a wide range of emotions convincingly. (ADDENDUM: Thanks to John Charles of Hong Kong Digital for identifying the actress, who is not named in the credits nor on the DVD cover art). Jordan Chan maintains one note throughout as Tsia-Chung -- glum and remote. Zhang Zhen (as A-Tai) and Shu Qi (as Siu Yu) bring a bit of life in their limited screen time, and several other actresses sparkle in minor roles. Again, wish I knew their names to tell you who they are.
Production: What a frustrating film to watch! Based strictly on the cover art, I anticipated a lighthearted romantic tale. Instead, it's a drama about people who communicate better over the Internet than in person. As you might expect, that makes for an often dull film. Whatever chance the story might have to captivate the viewer is robbed by the very poorly-translated English subtitles. What makes it really frustrating, though, is that the director demonstrates a good eye for framing scenes and that glimmers of emotional truth bubble just beneath the surface. The virtues of the tale are sabotaged by the manipulation of the characters. And the ending tries to wrap everything up in a nice bow, but instead exposes the shortcomings. The look of the film is handsome, although the music pushes too many familiar romantic buttons.
Rating: Category IIB. No violence, no profanity, and no nudity, so I suppose the rating must be for the sexual candor of the dialogue (which is not translated that way into English).
D V D : look, sound, subtitles, features
Look: The letterboxed (approximately 1.85:1) presentation looks good. Colors are saturated, black levels are sufficiently deep, and flesh tones look natural most of the time. Some wear and tear is evident on the source print.
Sound: Cantonese and Mandarin audio tracks are provided. It seems that both were post-synched, but it's likely that Mandarin was the original language. My DVD player (Pioneer DV-414) identified both as Dolby Digital 1.0 (Mono), and, indeed, the Cantonese track utilized only the center channel in outputting sound. However, the Mandarin track also included some surround surrounds and a slightly deeper sound field, and so appeared to be Dolby Digital 2.0. In any event, the film relies more on dialogue than any dynamic action sequences, so you may want to sample both tracks and decide which is more pleasing to your ears.
Subtitles: The white removable English subtitles were a major disappointment and affected my potential enjoyment of the film. Nearly every sentence contains a distracting misspelling, and the translation is so awkward that much of the film's linguistic charms are lost. Why? Because much of the dialogue consists of romantic bantering dependent entirely on the words themselves. It's my own fault, of course -- I don't understand either Cantonese or Mandarin! Traditional and simplified Chinese subtitles are also included.
Features: Nine chapters can be selected from a still-frame menu. The "bestbuy" is a trailer for the English-language Onegin. The "databank" contains synopsis and cast and crew information from the DVD's front and back cover.
R E C O M M E N D A T I O N : buy, rent, or pass?
Rent. Low, low priority. Two or three memorable images and a very nice performance by Ma Qian-shan — well, that may not sound like much of a recommendation, but, then again, it's not supposed to be.
(Reviewed 9/10/01)
| | | | Links | | |
corrections? broken links? criticism? praise? please e-mail webmaster
this site is a non-commercial resource for region 1
'woman warrior' original artwork by moro turkey
logo design by spot; site design assistance by jeff, shawn, and kevin
original content copyright 2001 peter a. martin all rights reserved