Gu cheng bielian

The protagonist is a day-dreamer, a poet who falls in love with two women, moves around the world to find his paradise and see it falling apart again. The film lives by strong, symbolic pictures which are of an almost unworldly beauty. But these pictures would not be as strong without the well-developed characters and a truly original plot. Anyone who liked 'Fallen Angels' should try to see this one!

Having endured this film as a favor, I only wish a Time Machine existed so I could be refunded the wasted duration to this awful picture.

If the screenplay was written with good intentions from heart-felt inspirations, whatever good ideas and "heart" on the script were completely lost in the production and the film's final print.

To start, none of the main characters played by Stephen Fung, Teresa Lee, and Ayako Morino were seasoned actors during the time the film was made, so a little extra "understanding" was already extended in judging their performances.

While Lee was the better of the lot, and seemed to have tried her best to make sense out of the narrative(which seemed to not be able to decide whether this story is supposed to be a biography, or a Bunuel-like take on a biography), Stephen Fung played the lead as a cross between a Stepford wife and a lunatic that reminded me of John Cassavettes' madman character in Robert Aldrich's DIRTY DOZEN... or was he supposed to be a SYBIL like schizophrenic? I can't tell, and more than 5 minutes of it I stopped caring. What caught more attention to most of the audience who wasn't related to the cast and crew, was how soon the film would end! There would be traces in the scattered narrative that tries to mimic moments in Vincente Minnelli's Van Gogh biography LUST FOR LIFE (as the story is about an artist-poet in this case, who lived his life in search of artistic beauty while neglecting everything and everyone around him), but that went only as far as the grassy plains of the exterior visuals in New Zealand.

Stephen Fung has never been thought of as a talented actor. In fact, prior to his acting career, he was even less as a member of a 2-man band that kept much of the pop scene wondering if its existence was a parody to the music scene in itself. Mark Lui, a successful pop music producer and composer in Hong Kong, has not a gifted voice, so you would expect the band would at least consist of one quality voice to accompany the music potential. In any case, the band's career was fortunately short-lived... but for the gift we got with Stephen Fung leaving the music scene, the damage was then extended to the HK film industry, where Stephen Fung would be promoted as an idol of sorts, and of late, even as a film-making talent.

All this reminds me of the classic John Landis role-reversal comedy TRADING PLACES, where Eddie Murphy played a transient given the chance to live the life of a Wall-street bigwig set-up as a wager between the heads of a commodities firm... but as that story successfully shows, a transient can be a star banker only if he knew how to apply common sense at the right time.

Stephen Fung, on the other hand, showed us his lack of talent at the beginning of his career, and after nearly a decade in the business, continues to remind us that things have stayed exactly the same for him.

I am Gu Xiang and emailed Amazon requesting that either the DVD be withdrawn or my email to the promoter (below) be appended. After two weeks there has been no response so I publish here.

My Serious Announcement

Because I just learned ( a few days ago) that my Father's name and My name are both on the list of credits of this film and I just learned that the DVD is widely available on the Internet, also because I am administrator of Gu Cheng's copyrights I must declare:

1. Despite being listed on the credits and knowing our opposition, the actual making of this film was intentionally hidden from both my Father and I. Since then I have always tried to contact the director Casey Chan but only found her recently despite her knowing where and how my Father and I could be contacted.

2. I complained to Casey Chan that making this film breached the copyrights and additionally making a DVD is also illegal. The film is devilishly fabricated, especially the slander of the concluding section which is serious defamation and totally distorts reality. It has extremely bad influence.

3. I requested that Casey Chan publish an apology to clarify the facts. She suggested it would make this wrong film better known and suggested that the best idea would be to keep silent to let this film be forgotten by the public. I told her but I have just learned that the film is already widely available on the Internet. Since she will do nothing then I must.

4. I know two others who were also shocked from having just learned that they have been named in the Credits. They were never informed. I did not ask about others who have been listed.

5. I am legally responsible for this announcement.

Gu Xiang 7 March 2007