Miss Du Shi Niang (2003)

User Rating:

5.1/10   

Director:

Raymond To

Writer:

Raymond To (writer)

Release Date:

20 November 2003 (Hong Kong)

Genre:

Comedy

Cast

Suet-Fei Chiu
Clifton Ko
Anson Leung
Michelle Reis	...	Du Shi Niang
Lydia Shum	...	Dame
Daniel Wu	...	Ken Li

Runtime:

Hong Kong:86 min

Country:

Hong Kong

Language:

Cantonese

Color:

Color

Certification:

Malaysia:18SX | Hong Kong:IIA

An aborted revival of a classical love elegy

Miss du shi niang may be an attempted reproduction of an ancient tale about an abandoned prostitute who ends with suicide upon the betrayal of her lover, with only the music score being noteworthy. The fatal failure may be attributed to the weakness of the screenplay, which includes excessive unessential trifles that distractingly occupy most of the movie running time while lacks a basic reasonable plot frame, making the whole movie deliver in a random and drifting pace, erratically but anticipatively.

It is quite confusing to try to capture the inexplicable central point of the film, or the ultimate intellectual motivation of the director, if any, to shot such a film. One may reflect that the film focuses on the emotional experience of the heroine captivated by ephemeral passion who eventually despairs of the loss, however, the plain cinematography is far from provocative to strike the audience. Daniel's fine performance is badly undermined by the defect of the screenplay. The leading actress, Michelle, may do a better job in cosmetics commercials than play a sentimentally fragile woman who bears unbearable sufferings, with her tearless tear-shed in those lamentation scenes.

For the director, it should not be imprudent to work on an old story with a well-known plot, for there still remains enough freedom to contrive novel flares though the deliberate twists may not be highly expected, which however cannot guarantee the acceptance of a tedious film from the audience. The director did not take the opportunity to polish the script with ready raw materials to make a classical tragedy flourish on screen.