Seung fei

I am a fan of Angelica Lee's acting. She seems so natural, no matter what role she plays. As the model for a computer game character, she seems at once perfect. The two actors that play the game's creators, Daniel Wu and Edison Chen, are also fine, but they don't have the same degree of likability. I have seen more than one film in which Ms. Lee has acted in which her looks are somewhat disparaged (If memory serves, in "Koma" she does it herself!). She has beautiful, big dark eyes and is otherwise very appealing. That appeal, along with her willingness, somewhat reluctantly at times, to go along with being the computer game model, makes the film enjoyable. Of course, there are other things going on, and they don't detract from the movie's unusual premise. You want everyone to succeed in this film. This film sometimes plays on the high definition cable channels, and it looks great in HD. Don't miss it.

The film opens with a cool CGI cartoon of a fly, and then we see the fly in the real world. We meet Joker, a video game designer. In a bar he meets Ling, a bartender with an attitude, and she saves him in a impressive Hong Kong-style fight scene in the alley. My expectations were high.

Joker uses Ling as his inspiration for a video game character, but then the film ground to a halt for me. It became a love story, which would have been fine, except it seemed to move *very* slowly, with many details that seemed completely irrelevant. Granted, I was sleepy, but I started the film very interested and it lost me.

Seen on 11/5/2002 at the 2002 Hawaii International Film Festival.

With IMDb describing Princess D as a sci-fi movie, and offering a rating of (then) above 7, I thought I could allow myself to expect a good movie. And while I'll admit that it was Angelica Lee that attracted me to the movie (and she indeed looks stunning), the movie as a whole was something of a disappointment. It doesn't seem to take place in the future; it's about a game designer who's basing a computer game character on a real girl he becomes infatuated with.

But it isn't a sci-fi movie. In fact, the whole computer game aspect grows thinner and thinner, as the movie focuses more and more on the miserable life situation of the girl, who deals drugs in order to pay off her brother's debt to a gangster. The characterization tends to be superficial, some key scenes seem to be entirely missing, and... it's just not a particularly good movie - in my opinion.

But Angelica Lee *is* great to look at...

5 out of 10.

Angelica Lee lifts an otherwise pedestrian story into one deserving of attention. Lee delivers a powerful performance, made even the more extraordinary because she's relatively new to this whole acting thing. Even so, she's the only reason to watch this movie, giving it heart and soul and just about anything else you'll need to fall in love with this film.

Lee's 2002 film is THE EYE, another great choice.

8 out of 10.

Daniel Wu plays a video game designer who overcomes a creative block up after a strange and wonderful rescue from near death by a punk bartender played by the wondrous Lee Sin Ji from a club. He finds in her inspiration for his next big game, and through their relationship they begin to learn to empower themselves through the pursuit of their respective dreams. Some wonderful CGI sequences that lead me to believe that Princes D would actually be a very cool, creepy and dreamlike adventure game. Lots of delicious visual storytelling, often the most powerful when saying the least verbally. And the supporting characters are wonderful, with interesting stories themselves that do an excellent job of underscoring the main plot. This is a really neat piece of work that I believe points to the potential of mainstream Hong Kong dramatic cinema when approached with integrity rather than looking for a quick cash in on the current big name (in other words, this is the opposite of Andy's Lau's awful recent flick "Wesley's Mysterious Files".