Anna & Anna

Tagline: A well meaning failure attempt at exploring the "what ifs" of life… Review by Neo: As with the history of this site, Neo usually proclaim his obvious bias at the beginning of a review and his everlasting love for Karena Lam is an obvious one. Ever since Karena stunning natural and critically acclaimed display in July Rhasody and it's been now 7 years on since that first sighting. So why did Neo bother catching such a little known movie, namely Anna and Anna, it is already pointless to mention. While the flick is extremely well meaning, emphasising on the choices that we make in our lives and the part and parcel of the regrets that comes along with it, Anna and Anna fails in terms of entertainment, sustaining interest and ultimate muddling the audience to the point of being too smart for its own good. Not an outright bad movie by all means, but a failure in terms of story telling and the result is losing the audience and everyone else that is not involved in the film-making. As usual Karena Lam steals the show, but even at times you can picture Lam as more lost than ever and more confuse than you can imagine.

Director Aubrey Lam (who previously directed the uneven yet pleasing 12 Nights and the underrated Hidden Track) tries to define an example to allow the audience to reflect upon their own regrets and how choices are made by us and not anyone else at the very end. Imagine what would happen if you choose to stay in a particular country to be with someone, rather than work in another country, or what if, you took advantage of what have became a missed opportunities. Aubrey smartly explores these notions of relevant themes, but as mentioned before, the flick is extremely well meaning, but it just never connects to the audience, the way it could have been.

There is no doubt that the thought of seeing two Karena Lam(s) excites the current reviewer, but unfortunately two of the same person does not make a good movie. While Lam is always an attractive and talented actress, the script loses not just the audience, but also Lam herself. When it comes to crying sequences, Lam is probably the only one that can match Cecilia Cheung is this arena. Still, Karena is always likable and her smile with dimples is almost irresistible to look at, but a smile or two does not make a film and even Karena herself cannot save this movie from the distance feeling. It must be commended however, that Karena manages to play two opposite characters extremely well and there are moments where it seems to be two different people. The supporting cast of (Lu Yi, Tender Huang Teng-Hao) tries hard to their own respective abilities, but once again, the prodding of the script ruins it all. Perhaps, Aubrey is a better writer than director, putting things to words is one thing, but creating a vision and a dream is totally another. This is probably true considering that Aubrey actually wrote 2005's Peter Chan extravagant love story - Perhaps Love.

All in all, Anna and Anna is very much a flick that wants the audience to relate to the proceedings, but ends up distancing and pushing the audience away rather than accepting them with open arms. It is a shame that an actress of the calibre of Karena Lam isn't given a better character role and it is even more so disappointing that the film never tries to be commercial and yet it drags and feels longer than its 90 minutes running time. Yes, it is good to know that our choices affect our future and regrets are just something that humanity has to learn to deal with. After all, we can't have everything in life and as Neo always proclaim, it is humanity to desire for things that we cannot have and yet never be truly content to the present surroundings. At the end of the day, the more meaning this flick attempt to get out only result in further disappointment and ultimately what appears on-screen just doesn't equals the effort and the initial intention. Then again, when all cases fails, there is still Neo's favourite Karena Lam to maintain the proceedings… (Neo 2008)

I rate it 5/10

• www.thehkneo.com

Earlier this year, there was a casting call for extras to be in Anna & Anna, with the presence of lead actress Karena Lam, and looking at the film, it would have involved being night club revelers in a darkened pub watching local band Ronin perform. This Singapore-Shanghai co- production, written and directed by Aubrey Lam, is surprisingly full of art-house sensibilities, but with all the wrong reasons in doing so, making this less than 90 minute film feel like a plodding dinosaur, hinging on the acting prowess of Karena Lam and Lu Yi (Jasmine Women, Seven Swords).

Karena plays Anna & Anna, and may I add, & Anna once more. Anna One is an executive with an extreme love for blue eye shadows. A Singaporean sent by her manager (played by TV actor Huang Shi Nan) to Shanghai for work, she finds this an opportunity to rid herself of her wimpy boyfriend, Billy (Tender, whose name befits the character), a band member whose long hair betrays his effeminate nature. Here's an alpha-female in a power suit, but inside, she's still nursing a longing for her old flame Ouyang (Lu Yi).

Anna Two happens to be an artist, with a chic short pageboy hairdo (ok, this is to differentiate between the Annas), and surprisingly, is hooked up with Lu Yi's Ouyang. Questions are abound as to timeline, and whether they are the one and the same, or different people who just happen to share the same pretty face. Anna Two's no alpha-female though, and seems to be one who's emotionally tormented by Ouyang, and so begins, the incessant questions of identity that begged to be answered.

The narrative started off promisingly with such possibilities of exploring into doppelgangers, identities, and especially on love, whether we will tend to gravitate towards people of similar characteristics, or in more shallow terms, physical looks (hey, remember the Vaughn-Aniston vehicle The Break Up, and the ending for that?). It set up interesting standoffs such as who's the original, and who's the substitute for the heart, which will probably make for some unconventional romantic story drawing from life experiences. But alas, the movie lost its plot halfway in becoming too schizophrenic for its own good, especially when Karena's Anna One decided to chop her locks off, and the film had to rely on technicalities to cue the audience. What it degenerated to was failure to capitalize on its prince and pauper moments, and became was a woeful reflection of self-pity by all characters, and this without unnecessary meandering through timelines.

Which was actually guilty in trying to introduce and sustain the backstory, and hence my interpretation of the hypothetical Anna Three, which I felt was there just to extrapolate the running time to qualify this as a feature film. Shave away the unnecessary extras and half- baked ideas, and this would have been watchable at the very least. However the actual end result we get is a soulless film with soulless characters that we don't give a hoot about.