Chinese Odissey

Ok, what was good about it? All 4 leads were perfect, the settings were gorgeous, the costumes were amazing, the story unfolded not quite as I thought it would, the witty one-liners got some good belly-laughs, and yes, that singing/dancing opera piece had me in stitches when in any other film it would get turned off. Loved it, loved it, loved it. I had a good laugh watching this, now that the DVD is out I'll be ordering it. 9 out of 10!

This film is produced by Wong Kar Wai. There are a lot of inside jokes and spoofs on Wong's earlier movies. My favourite is the one where the Tony and Faye talk about distance. This is a re-make of their 'Chungking Express' encounter. I was in stitches. If one is not familiar with Wong's work, the movie will therefore be labelled as nonsense.

The thing that struck me most about this movie is its radiance. The music alone will tell you that this movie is about having fun.

The comedy is perhaps a little bit questionable, depending on you're tastes. Sometime's it's just simple verbal jokes, and at other times, it's just completely random. I found the randomness to be a little too weird to be funny at times, but most of the humor is fine.

My favorite scenes are the ones depicting pure enjoyment. One scene in particular that strikes me is the spoof of Chinese opera. Faye is singing, beautifully, as usual, and making lots of similies and such, and Tony just says a bunch of stupid stuff (probably because his character is uneducated). My favorite lines being: Faye: See those geese in the middle of the pond, enjoying each other's company like we are. Tony: Today they swim, Tomarrow they roast. Roast goose is truly delicious.

Often times in a movie about love, the ones that are remembered are the ones where the characters are creative in showing their love. I mean, it's not easy to give that kind of emotion to the audience with characters they have only known for two hours.

It's even harder to give the audience the enjoyment of being in the company of someone really fun. This song and dance, as well as other scenes in the movie accomplish this very well. While they're doing the ridiculous dances, Faye can be seen close to, if not bursting into laughter. The director and the actors really looked like they had great fun with this film, and that translates onto the audience.

The formulaic aspect of the movie, or the part i'm not so crazy about is the last 15 minutes or so. While i don't mind the plot's development, i feel the character reactions were a bit exaggerated. Both Faye and Tony end up going crazy, literally. There needn't be such an exaggeration to depict the sadness of the characters. In fact, that shouldn't even be a focus of a movie of pure fun like this.

It does ultimately end on a happy note, which is quite nice. In the end, i do find something special about this movie. Nothing really matches the pure enjoyment i feel from this movie. Every time i think of the drunken song, i can't help but smile. There are some parts of the movie which aren't quite as wonderful, but it's definitely worth you're time.

In the Ming Era, Emperor Chang Chen and his sister, Princess Faye Wong, are anxious to escape the Forbidden City and the Dowager Empress Rebecca Pan. Finally, Miss Wong does so. Disguised as a man, she comes to the restaurant run by Wei Zhao and her bullying, wandering brother Tony Cheung. Cheung and the Empress fall in love, but he doesn't realize she is a girl, so he tries to marry her to his sister. They wander back towards the capital, he finds out the truth. Meanwhile, Chen goes out with a guard to search for his sister. He comes to the restaurant, and he and Miss Zhao fall in love, but she's still smitten with his sister, and he's worried she will only love him for being Emperor, so he pretends to be a wandering fashion designer.

Jeffrey Lau has directed one of those movies turned out by the Chinese film industry which crosses all sorts of genre boundaries, and includes magical bunnies, fights involving non-existent forms of martial arts, and lots of gags. So many gags, including gender-bending gags. At its heart it pretends that it's a mediation on the meaning and means of true love. Perhaps. I found it more than satisfactory, even brilliant, in its variety and extremes of funny bits.

Chinese Odyssey 2002 is a really funny movie. If you've seen Ashes of Time, Chungking Express, He's a Woman, She's a Man, and any Zhao Wei movie, or the original Chinese Odyssey movies you have to see this. It's hilarious in a silly Hong Kong comedy way. And it has all the elements: action scenes, magic, love stories, and a Bollywood-style song number you will never forget. Oh, get it out of my head!

I don't know why it's not faring so well in the polls because I've seen it so many times but it still makes me laugh, and I haven't shown it to anyone who didn't find it funny.

The shocking part is that it only cost me $2.70 to buy this movie. In a state of recession, cheap laughter is twice as enjoyable.