Nominations
at the Hong Kong Film Awards 1998:
Best Actress (Anita Yuen)
Daniel Lee is slightly famous internationally since he directed
the Jet Li vehicle Black Mask. The downside to that
was having his film 'blessed' with a shortened running time,
English dubbing and a new score. His other movies are clearly
not for an American market since he has divided his time between
drama (A Fighter's Blues) and martial arts (What
Price Survival). A Fighter's Blues didn't really
become as good as Daniel aimed at but with Till Death Do
Us Part he displays a directing talent that's up there
with the best of them.
Bo Bo (Anita Yuen from From Beijing With Love) has
the perfect marriage according to herself but outside of her
happy mind, her husband Alex (Alex Fong from Portland Street
Blues) is not so happy. He has been with another woman
for 2 years and on one night of celebration he breaks the
news to Bo Bo. She is deeply hurt and the only thing stopping
her from going into deep depression is the love for her daughter
Cowboy. As time goes by she does get more and more careless
which results in Alex wanting to have custody over Cowboy
(Wong Man Yi). As the glimmer of hope fades away, Bo Bo's
life becomes darker and darker...
The pain of divorce is something I and many others have had
to endure. My parents separated in 1999 and discussing why
and who's fault it is is difficult, both in my case and in
Daniel Lee's movie. Bo Bo is of course the one portrayed as
the victim and the hurt individual, which is correct. If you're
in her shoes you're not the first one to point out your own
shortcomings and it's easier to fully lay the blame on someone
else. Even if I strongly oppose starting a relationship within
one, I still think Bo Bo is partly to blame because of her
ignorance of the things going on around her. Alex is the one
who sees the happiness in her that isn't really there and
at the same time his job as a cop is a heavy burden to carry.
That makes it not entirely wrong of him to seek out his happiness
in Belle (Almen Wong), even if he is a married man. What he
does right is making sure his family is taken care off financially
but he can't turn his back on it completely. One because of
his child and two because of what the suffering of Bo Bo is
doing to Cowboy. So all in all, Bo Bo is the victim but both
parties involved are responsible for what happened. What all
that can lead to is then shown in Till Death Do Us Part
in a very powerful way.
Till Death Do Us Part was Daniel Lee's first collaboration
with ace director Derek Yee (acting as producer on this and
the, to date, latest Daniel Lee movie A Fighter's Blues)
and it's a very good production thanks to that. The whole
feel is not totally unlike a Derek Yee directed film but I'm
not taking anything away from Daniel because he's done a competent
piece of Hong Kong cinema here. He displays many stylistic
film tricks in his tale of breakdown and for the most part
it actually work really well. He starts the movie with an
almost ridiculously romantic (but in a good way for his film)
credits sequence that shows what Bo Bo and Alex had at the
beginning. If this had been a romantic comedy this intro would've
killed the movie because it's so damn positive, almost makes
you want to vomit (if not the song played over the sequence
will). Daniel continues to inject more wild camerawork and
editing, especially in the few, but hard hitting, violent
scenes. The almost free for all camerawork does great things
for the chaos and the atmosphere within these scenes. The
aspect that works the best is the several examples of intercutting
seen in a few sequences. Daniel often cuts to moving but colourless
past events and also uses still frames at times to illustrate
his points. The best moments in terms of intercutting is when
we see the fairy tale that Bo Bo tells to her daughter actually
played out for us. Bo Bo works as a part time animator and
the story she's written so clearly mirrors the downward spiral
in her life. As she tells more and more of it, it turns darker
and grimmer. All this visual trickery doesn't get in the way
of storytelling because Daniel makes it part of it instead.
That way he can focus on one aspect, instead of two at times.
I'm not finished talking about our director's work but to
continue that we have to start mentioning our leading lady
Anita Yuen. The movie is so dependent on her performance and
how Daniel directs the character handling the new circumstances
in her life. It's a very realistic and believable portrayal
of the loss of happiness. When Bo Bo eventually starts acting
irrational I really needed to focus on the further development
of the character. Because from this point things could've
gotten been way over the top but Bo Bo's fate is not a totally
unbelievable one. No one can map out how a hurt human being
like her would react or do to herself. It becomes almost painful
to watch as Daniel adds more tension through sound and the
character can't show her best side of motherhood when needed.
Again, it's a very believable performance and even if Anita
lost to Sandra Ng in the Best Actress category, it's still
award winning stuff. Alex Fong impressed me in Portland
Street Blues with his very silent way of acting out his
character. He did very much with the eyes and that is even
more apparent in Till Death Do Us Part. Francis Ng
also has a supporting part as Bo Bo's solicitor and the writing
even allows his character to be more fleshed out as far as
these characters go.
Till Death Do Us Part is probably too depressing for
some viewers or they will only watch it once because of that.
I'm however one of those viewers that need to balance both
the positive and the negative atmosphere movies can offer.
Daniel Lee's film is very well-made, powerful and most importantly
it shows that he's not just the director behind Black Mask.
The DVD:
Universe's dvd presentation is either excellent or a little
flawed. The 1.85:1 print is very clean but has a slight softness
and darkness to it. Especially the latter almost dominate
a few scenes. It could be very intentional though, you be
the judge.
The Cantonese 5.1 Dolby Digital track functions really well.
There's much talk but some sound effects and tension filled
scenes use the front stage in a very good way. Surrounds are
used for stuff like rain but sometimes feels mixed a bit to
high. A Mandarin 5.1 dub is also included.
The English subtitles were generally pretty excellent. Just
a few minor errors occurred but sadly they were placed partially
on the black lower bar, which makes us widescreen owners very
angry (can't zoom in fully). Traditional and simplified Chinese
subtitles are also included.
The usual Universe extras turn up on this dvd as well. The
Star's Files for actors Anita Yuen, Alex Fong, Francis Ng
and producer Derek Yee provide very basic info and filmographies
and we also get the theatrical trailer for Till Death Do
Us Part and Anna Magdalena.
reviewed by Kenneth
Brorsson
BACK TO TOP
© 2002 - 2008 So Good... - Hong Kong DVD
Movie Reviews
|
