) comes from Taiwan; a flighty, fun-loving, drug-using young woman, she's arrived on the island to meet an Englishman she'd slept with the night before; he runs a bar managed by May (Elaine Jin). Also stopping over is Han (Julian Cheung), a handsome young actor from Hong Kong who rose to overnight stardom with his first film; now he's looking for peace and quiet. The seventh character, Bo (Gordon Liu), a middle-aged homosexual, runs the island's only hotel. After some introductory preliminaries, news comes that the island has been quarantined for an indefinite period because of an outbreak of the deadly ``stone virus.'' Helicopters and ships prevent further arrivals and departures.
As the night wears on, these characters reveal, one by one, more about themselves. As Haruki writes at the beginning, ``they'll see things differently'' after the crisis is over. The problem is that they're not a particularly interesting or likable group, with the irresponsible Mei Ling probably the best company. Providing an added liability, the two Japanese characters converse at length in English that is so heavily accented as to be barely comprehensible.
Kwan taps into the insecurities of contemporary Hong Kong. The film's virus is evidently a reference to a ``bird flu'' that killed several people in 1998 and was spread by chickens imported from the mainland. Uneasiness about the new political and social situation is at the heart of a film that proposes the need to cross over the line of reality in order to see things more clearly. But the flabby philosophizing is too often on the level of ``Happiness is a hot water bottle.''
Original title roughly translates as ``Time to Dance,'' and that's what the surviving characters wind up doing after one of them has apparently fallen victim to the virus.Kwan and his cameraman, Pun-leung Kwan, have come up with a trendy look, utilizing diffused light, harsh colors and the regrettably fashionable handheld look, thought by some to be more ``real'' but which instead adds to the artificiality and sense of straining for effect.
Some of the actors seem to be struggling with their dialogue; among a distinctly uneven cast, Shu Qi provides the most convincing performance as the happy-go-lucky Mei Ling.
There are a few misspellings in the English-language end credit scroll.
Haruki ........ Takao Osawa
Mei Ling ...... Shu Qi
Sharon ........ Michele Reis
Han ........... Julian Cheung
Marianne ...... Kaori Momoi
May ........... Elaine Jin
Bo ............ Gordon Liu
A the Island Tales Seisaku/Kwan's Creative Workshop production. (International sales: TF1 Intl., Paris.) Produced by Shinya Kawai, Naoko Tsukeda.
Directed by Stanley Kwan. Screenplay, Jimmy Ngai. Camera (color), Pan-leung Kwan; editors, Maurice Li, Jimmy Ngai; music, Yat-yiu Yu; production designer, William Chang; sound (Dolby digital), Duu-chih Tu; associate producers, James Tsim, Benny Wong, Osamu Kunota; assistant directors, Katie Kwan, Taney Chan. Reviewed at Berlin Film Festival (competing), Feb. 11, 2000.
By David Stratton
Reuters/Variety
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