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P R E V I E W
Goodbye Mr. Cool
Mei Ah / 2001 / 101 minutes
Directed by Jingle Ma Choh Sing
Story by Jingle Ma Choh Sing; Screenplay by Yeung Sin Ling and Susan Chan Suk YinWith Ekin Cheng Yee-Kin, Karen Mok Man-Wai, Rain Li Choi Wah
B A C K G R O U N D : director, in cinemas, recent and related films
Jingle Ma Choh Sing began his career as a cinematographer in 1986; after a number of less-than-classic endeavors, he lensed more than 40 films (including Fong Sai Yuk, Full Throttle, and Comrades, Almost a Love Story) until making his directorial debut with Hot War in 1988. Fly Me to Polaris came next in 1999, followed by Tokyo Raiders and Summer Holiday in 2000.
The film played in Hong Kong cinemas in April 2001.
Ma's latest film just hit cinemas: Para Para Sakuya.
M O V I E : plot, performances, production, rating
Mei Ah releases only single-layered DVDs; thus limiting the amount of information that can be packed on a side. Strangely, though, the company has also decided to increase the number of audio tracks provided to six, resulting in a double-sided disk. Equally strangely, the company persists in its practice of leaving off any time coding.
And to make it really frustrating, I could not get Side A to play! Once again, another defective disk that will have to be returned (this time all the way to Hong Kong).
These are the sort of trials that make me terribly grouchy in the heat of the brain-frying Texas (USA) summer.
In any event, based on Side B only, I was disappointed. Side B is about 35 minutes of talking and 5 minutes of action. The problem is not the amount of talking but the lack of originality in what was said. Curiously enough, it wasn't difficult to figure out what was going on, plot-wise, and the "family broken by triad father" dynamic was not terribly involving. It may be that the first hour set things up in a brilliantly original manner, but I'm not holding my breath.
D V D : look, sound, subtitles, features
Look: The letterboxed (approximately 1.85:1) presentation looks very good, with deep black tones, accurately rendered colors, and natural-looking flesh tones. The source print is very clean.
Sound: The DD 5.1 Cantonese soundtrack sounded average; some dialogue was too boxy, lacking in full dynamic range; the surrounds were used judiciously. Five other audio tracks are provided: Cantonese DD 2.0 and DTS, as well as Mandarin DD 5.1, DD 2.0, and DTS.
Subtitles: The white removable English subtitles betrayed a number of errors but were generally readable and well timed. Also included are traditional and simplified Chinese subtitles.
Features: As noted above, I could only get Side B to play; four chapters could be selected from a still-frame menu. No time coding is provided.
R E C O M M E N D A T I O N : buy, rent, or pass?
Rent. Low priority. Certainly it's not entirely fair to rate a disk just by its last 40 minutes (and I will revisit the movie when a replacement copy arrives), but the quiet drama held no surprises and meandered before arriving at a perfunctory and all-too-predictable conclusion. I did like what I saw of Karen Mok's performance and also enjoyed most of what Ekin Cheng did with his lead role.
(Previewed 8/2/01)
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