Kwai ching

Ok. I guess I'll write a review. I just bought the brand new blu-ray of it. Don't know why. Blind buy gamble. But I'm glad I did because it's actually a pretty interesting film with more layers to it than just erotic murder mystery.

The film begins with a little girl named Marble whose home life is pretty sad, with an alcoholic and gambling father who beats his wife. It leads to Marble losing her leg (off screen. Must have been a heck of an accident) so her parents pawn her off on her grandmother who lives a simple village in which women are no better respected. There's a shopkeeper's wife stuck in a loveless marriage after being lured in by false pretenses of wealth, and it's the men who the village women believe should come first, demonstrated by a traditional ancestor observance which only boys are allowed to eat pork. Marble's sees how her mother was treated is pretty status quo no matter where she goes.

But oh how wonderful a sight it is when her grandmother accepts a job to clean a mansion outside of town of a gorgeous beauty pageant and model. Marble's first sight of a strong, beautiful, independent women. Almost a fairy tale princess in the eyes of Marble. Only even this princess is held down by the same desperation for love, like the shopkeeper's wife, like her mother, (and like whatever kink Marble's neighbour is into with her white husband that leads to hilarious results). But trouble starts when the model (in an affair with a rich businessman) sleeps with the local postman/martial arts trainer, who is already in an affair with the shopkeeper's wife! And through all this sneaking and sleeping around, you question whether there is a real love blooming anywhere in the story, or is it all just an attempt to fill a void.

But when MURDER MOST FOUL happens in the middle of a rainy night and Marble's habit of voyeurism through her binoculars is the only witness, she garners a type of courage that earns her a kind of respect from the other kids not quite expressed among the adults.

The movie incorporates a lot of genres: erotic thriller, comedy, romance drama, child mystery solving, all with corny '80s flair (like an exercise montage). But director, (and FIRST Shaw Brothers hired woman director), Angie Chen, actually blends these different tunes and pacing obstacles in a fantastic way. Whenever the film feels too familiar in its formula, she changes it up with an anchor of melancholic loneliness and something sinister lurking.

Now, this movie was produced after Shaw Brothers' prime, so it's easy to see where budget corners are cut. Locations are few and simple, not too flashy, and the model's rich and luxurious life is limited to just seeing her at home exercising (or under the silk bed sheets). Compared to another murder mystery thriller, say, Dario Argento's The Bird With the Crystal Plumage, you can see how that movie had a much larger budget and how it used it. Maybe It's Love doesn't quite have the luxury to show as much, but that by no means limits Angie Chen's talent as a director. Shooting on-location adds an intimate intrigue, the cinematography finds areas to be dynamic and to find interesting lighting opportunities, (and also the lighting of skin during the intimate scene is the best since The Lover. Only no nudity), and once in a while Angie finds a shot that's surprisingly ominous and unsettling. This Angie Chen girl is actually a pretty darn good director! And it helps that the actors, including the promotional eye-candy, Cherie Chung, as well as the child actors, are also good acting on screen too.

By pushing past it's budgetary boundary, Maybe It's Love is a really good movie, with a surprising amount of images and scenes to analyze. Definitely not a conventional '80s murder mystery. (I'm a hard reviewer, so a 7 means I REALLY liked the movie).