Seung fei

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.

Joker, a computer game designer, falls in love with Ling, the bartender on whom he's modeling Princess D, the cyber heroine in his latest digital adventure. Initially bemused by the designer's interest in her, Ling is gradually drawn towards the fantasy world created by Joker for his game as a welcome relief from the grim reality of her dysfunctional family.

In portraying that grim reality, the film stands apart from traditional romances, but is careful to avoid becoming distastefully sordid. Ling sells drugs at the disco where she works, but does so only to free her younger brother from debt to a gangster. Her father is a criminal, but treats his distracted wife with sensitivity and tenderness during her visits to his prison. Her mother's distraction doesn't prevent her from unexpectedly saving her daughter from arrest.

The grimness is also alleviated by flashes of whimsy and humour. When a fly is swatted, a transparent ghost fly emerges from its crushed body and buzzes away. An ICQ exchange is portrayed by superimposing the participants' messages like subtitles, and ends with a cartoon emerging from the computer screen to blow a raspberry. An infatuated girl signals her feelings by presenting the object of her affection with a navel ring.

Helping to sell the unusual cocktail is an appealing cast of young and personable actors with good support from such veterans as Pat Ha (after a 10-year absence from movies) and Anthony Wong (who's never looked more trim and graceful).

Visually, the film adopts whatever style best suits each scene's needs, but without ever seeming derivative. The more edgy and frenetic scenes are particularly impressive when you consider the quite traditional previous work of director Sylvia Chang and cinematographer Pin Bing Lee.

The complex characters, dark back-story and whimsical touches combine to make PRINCESS D an engaging and original contribution to the romance genre.

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".

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.