Moonlight Express

Hong Kong movie makers are adding Western attractions to their films to cater to Western fans born from the epic 1980's shoot-fests. The bulk of the music in MOONLIGHT is English. There is some English dialog, and there is Michelle Yeoh -- the internationally recognized Arnold Schwarzzenegger of Hong Kong action films.

While I agree that her performance in the movie is exceptional, for me her appearance overpowered the rest of the movie. When the ending credits roll, one wishes her character's story was the main subject matter.

Worth watching, but as a whole this film is no masterpiece.

The film begins in Japan where a man (Leslie Cheung) proposes to a woman (Takako Tokiwa). Unfortunately, the man dies in a tragic car accident and the girl is left very depressed. Unable to let go of the past, she decides to visit the man's home country (Hong Kong). During her visit to his HK offices, she bumps into an undercover cop who bears an uncanny resemblance to her boyfriend.

This film is basically a romance mixed in with a police story that is quite frankly filler material. Leslie Cheung plays a character (Sek Gar Bo) who has been driven into his work through grief at losing his girlfriend. Takako Tokiwa plays the female lead (Hitomi) who becomes immersed in Gar Bo's problems. There is a cameo appearance from Michelle Yeoh whose screen presence never ceases to amaze me. Her brief performance alone almost made the movie worth watching. Takako Tokiwa puts on a cute Cantonese accent, and with her charming eyes, she will no doubt keep Japanese girl fetishists smiling.

This is, essentially, a love story. A young Japanese woman is about to marry a Japanese man who works in Hong Kong. He is killed on the eve of the wedding. She goes to Hong Kong and meets an undercover cop, Karbo, who looks just like the dead fiance. Fate then throws them together when he is framed for a crime.

For me, the highlight of this film is the cameo performance of Michelle Yeoh near the end of the film. She plays Karbo's former partner. Karbo had been engaged to her sister, who committed suicide years before.

Yeoh gives an amazingly subtle and nuanced performance. In five or so minutes on the screen, she creates a character of great depth with an established history. All with facial expressions -- not a word of exposition. In a way, her secondary little story becomes as powerfully moving as the main plot. Once again she proves herself one of the best actresses in film.