A Woman & A Man (1993)

Directed by: Lam Gam-Fung
Written by: ?
Producer: Joseph Kuo
Starring: Chan Wing-Chiu, Michael Tiu, Ken Tong, & Charlie Cho

You can't be in thrash and smut gold all throughout 1993. True for female actress Chan Wing-Chi who got fun and sweet material to work with in the Ho Fan produced False Lady (the Cat III take on Blake Edwards' Switch) and had a sleazy Thailand jungle adventure in Erotic Journey but re-uniting with her co-star of the former, A Woman & A Man is a shot in one week at the producer's house embarrassment of largely unsexy and confusing proportions.

The relatively simple plot seems to have trouble coming through but essentially Wu Shie Yan (Michael Tiu) is a debt collector going after Cheng Yao Cheng (Ken Tong) and his girlfriend Celia (Chan Wing-Chi) who's shacked up in a valuable house and land that Yao Cheng is not able to cash in on yet due to a passage in the will of his dead wife. Through various disguises, Shie Yan gets into the house, Yao Cheng has disappeared so he waits out with Celia. Truths and developments along the way involves Yao Cheng having cheated on Celia and the debt collector and her developing feelings...

The initial beats are fun, with the producer's house being said to be haunted and the intro to Tiu's character resembles beats out of A Chinese Ghost Story so are we getting a filthy version of what that story turned out to be? Unfortunately not as that train of thought, if it ever was there, disappears under the dullness of the uneventful, limited in scope drama here. Or rather the later drama because first Chan and Tiu are asked to deliver their lines a bit loud for the comedy banter to classify as that. It may fall into that category but also under the unfunny, lacking in chemistry which is a shame because they had such before-folder

And when even the sex scenes are as close to shot with a stationary camera and with fogged up lenses, you know the people involved aren't feeling involved and desperately are trying to make up a script to get them out of an 83 minute whole (and that house). When the character gallery is essentially only three in total, you add some random, whoever they are-ladies taking Chan Wing-Chi on a lesbian adventure and best of all, Charlie Cho as the peeping neighbour. Yet again game and having no shame, he may not display an array of high tech ways of peeping a la My Neighbours Are Phantoms but the shenanigans in the neighbour house are far more fun and hot.

A label and verdict you don't want on your movie and although director Lam Gam-Fung tries to create a varied, epic final sex scene between his leads, it reeks of desperation and someone having watched the fun, final scene of False Lady in order for a copy and emulation to take place. But Lam ain't no Ho Fan in terms of the feeling of the elaborate sex set-piece or a master with the camera in this. A Woman & A Man could've been elevated if these final 10 would've been in that same division but I would've just slammed it for bringing in an uncredited Ho Fan to save Lam Gam-Fung's behind.

 

reviewed by Kenneth Brorsson