An uneven, pointless, yet fun movie about female sex life
After a couple of underwhelming years about the issue of sex in the HK industry, 2007 seems to turn around this topic of interest. With movies like Whispers and Moans talking about life in the sex trade, Single Blog talks about the modern age female sex life. While the topic alone will fascinate the sight of a certain gender, Single Blog is rather blend and like Whispers and Moans, it fails to show any real skin and body parts that really matters. Not being a pervert or anything, but when the movie is so uneven and pointless, one might hope that you can at least get something out of it. Still, Single Blog is apparently based on a number of real life stories which adds to some degree of certain realism and random fun, but in the end the flick is far too uneven for one to emote and far too distance to relate.
The movie goes like this: Rain Li (House of Mahjong) stars as Kitty, a reserved young woman who discovers her boyfriend (Derek Tsang) cheating on her. Given the opportunity to reinvent herself, she throws herself into the singles scene with surprising sexual abandon, and learns through experience how to please men - not to mention, how to please herself at the same time! Meanwhile, adventurous roommate Vivian (Jo Koo) finds her wild ways tamed by a straight-laced dope (Chan Fai Hung) who cares for her in ways her usual one-night-stands won't. Finally, adorable Mei (Monie Tung) is dumped by her boyfriend, and rebounds into the arms of her sexy female boss (Anya)
While one may say that Rain Li performed a somewhat daring role, by being quite touchy and intimate with the ever improving Andrew Lin. Her performance is still rather tame within the genre standards, but still it is by far her most difficult role since 2001's Stolen Love. The unfortunate part of this film is that it really runs like a "blog" which in turns leads to some rather uneven bits and pieces. One moment there will be an incredibly well filmed sequence with Rain Li seducing Andrew Lin and the processes that comes with it, but the next moment, we see Rain Li bedding with one guy after another. It is true that some moments are believable and perhaps even true, but the art of unevenness never makes a coherent film as a whole.
Others that are worthy of mention is the much missed return of the ultra sexy Anya who performs her role with a measure of tightness and tomboyish style that eludes her from her former sexiness. On the other hand, relatively newcomer Monie Tung is fast becoming Neo's new flame as her cuteness combines well with her natural innocence that made her so damn attractive. Not to mention her kiss scene under the table with Anya is undoubtedly one of the few shining lights upon such a tame flick. With Whispers and Moans and now this under her belt, Tung is certain up for bigger things ahead.
Moving on to Jo Koo, an actress of significant ability, performs the best of the three leading lights. Her ability to induce the audience into her role makes her the most relating of the three "bloggers". It is almost certainty that Jo Koo is easily one of the most underrated actresses in HK cinema. Despite being in the industry for almost a decade, Jo Koo is never really recognised and with a glimpse of her past roles like Born Wild and Public Toilet, it certainly rings true. Let's just hope that she won't become a forgotten talent in years to come. Adding to the mix is Derek Tsang who grows out of his father's shadow with each film and Raymond Wong once again showing that he is by far better at supporting than leading.
All in all, director Lee Po Cheung has created a fun, yet extremely uneven movie that never seems to end up working. While there are shinning moments in between here and there, Single Blog never actually works like a film and in the end the audience is unable to relate, despite the fact that the movie is based on real life events. It is a shame that Single Blog isn't daring enough in many departments, but lucky the film never goes to the point of boredom and in fact some fun can even be had. Perhaps Single Blog is better to be viewed like a blog and the process might be a different story
I rate it 6.25/10.
