Lika (![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small} silent_bunny) wrote,@ 2008-08-15 23:36:00 |
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And this would be the second movie in as many days where I’ve seen Anita Mui kiss another woman
I wrote the following review on my bus ride home yesterday after seeing Who’s the woman, who’s the man? for the first time. I've since seen it again, and while I maintain the flaws of the movie are still as annoying as the first time I saw them, the movie is FAR FAR better the second time around. In my opinion, it and its predecessor "He's a woman, she's a man", are two of the best movies out about homosexuality, and they're definitely now my favorite movies on the topic, especially “Who’s the woman, who’s the man?" when it comes to lesbianism. Yes, I am well aware that Wing ends up with her boyfriend, not Fan Fan, but the exploration of her feelings for another woman were done with deft sensitivity, and I appreciated the fact that the movie was more about sexual and personal confusion than putting a label of one's sexuality orientation, admittedly, because I'm confused as fuck over my own sexual preference.
Before I confuse people more, here's the review I wrote yesterday, complete with recaps this time (heh) and lj-cut for length. A brief rant about the lack of good lesbian storyline in entertainment kind of jumped out during the writing of it. I also added more to the "Things I love about the movie" list at the end after seeing it a second time today. There was a lot of little bits of thoughtfulness and "just plain human being moments" that I missed the first time time around. Mostly, I love this movie, and the original, because they're a rarity in today's cinema: genuinely sweet movies on a contraversial topic, with not a bad bone in their bodies. Other than Pixar, it's been a long time since I've seen a good movie that was sweet, and even longer since I've seen an adult one.
I’m still trying to get my thoughts around “Who’s the woman, who’s the man?”, the sequel to very awesome “He’s a woman, she’s a man” that I had just raved about. Like most Hong Kong sequels, it suffers an enormous amount of irritating flaws and some bad writing and is nowhere as good as the original, but unlike most Hong Kong sequels, it doesn’t destroy the magic of the original and actually has a few good merits. Overall, I liked it a lot. Don’t think I’ll recommend it though (not that I recommend Hong Kong movies to anyone who hasn’t grown up with them, but “He’s a woman, she’s a man” was a movie that a crowd used to Hollywood movies could enjoy, and I was hoping, “Who’s the woman, who’s the man” would be one as well.)
So, recaps, seeing how I was too over-the-moon with teenage glee about the “He’s a woman, she’s a man” to provide one. That movie started out with a girl named Wing (Anita Yuen), who wants to meet her music idols Rose (Carina Lau) and Sam (Leslie Cheung). Sam is auditioning male singers in an early Hong Kong version of “American Idol” and Wing disguises herself as a man to meet her stars. She gets chosen, and the story goes from there with all sorts of complications arising from everyone thinking that Wing is male and gay, especially when she and Sam start to fall in love. “He’s a woman, she’s a man” was a thoughtful, heartfelt look at Sam’s attraction to what he believed was another man, and I love how the movie handled that angle.
“Who’s the woman, who’s the man?” is the flip of the first movie, with Wing discovering her attraction to another woman, Fan Fan (Anita Mui.) The good news is that the lesbian angle was done with the same sensitivity and maturity that the gay angle was done in the previous movie. The bad news is that the flaws found in the rest of the movie distracts and takes away from it and the storyline of Wing’s new relationship with Sam. It’s rather frustrating because it’s one of the few movies in any language that I’ve seen tackle the lesbian issue with anything resembling warmth and heart, and a chemistry that feels real instead of tacked on.
And here I go into a slightly off topic rant here about the lack of good lesbian storylines: I’m a huge fan of the “Oh lesbians, aren’t they hot!” mentality as much as the next straight guy – possibly more – but I’m frustrated at the lack of flesh-and-blood couples that are female/female. There’s so many well done m/m stories and romance out there, and m/m OTP, but does anyone really have a f/f OTP? The only ones I have is Tung/Hong from So Close and Yomiko/Nancy from the Read or Die OVA series. Wing/Fan Fan wouldn’t work since their relationship was more of an experience that Wing matures through and figures out how she really feels about Sam, and as unPoliticalCorrect as having a girl discover how she and her boyfriend fit in her life through another woman is by North American standards, it works damn well here, mostly because the chemistry is believable and the heart is in the right place. It’s also the closest thing I can think of that’s an actual lesbian romance, which is great for the movie and why I like it so much, but sad to think of in terms of queer entertainment. Why can’t there be more lesbian romances? Not couples who are hot and forbidden, or couples who fascinate their viewers because they're both females, or couples who you want to see together but they never get there except maybe a proxy kiss... but a real romantic couple where the two just happen to be female.
(Yes, I know, “Saving Face”, which was an excellent movie about being Chinese-American lesbians – why do Chinese people make such good lesbian flicks? – but it lacked a naturalness that I believe all good romances should have and that’s why Wilheima/Vivienne are not on my OTP list, though I hearts them to bits.)
Back to the movie. Its flaws: The problems Sam and Wing have when they start to live together makes no sense to me, because they had been living together in the previous movie, just Sam thought Wing was a guy. Wing seemed out of character for the first bit and there were some weird developments that didn’t make sense with what had happened in the last movie. The whole storyline with Fish (Wing’s friend who for some reason that made no goddamn sense moves in with Sam and Wing) chasing after the rollerblading lesbian throughout the whole movie irritated me, and a certain ending development made me want to hit someone. I think I would have recommended with all the other flaws had it not been for that ending development. Okay, it also would have been hard to recommend a movie with scene that involved a Woody Allen and a Whoopi Goldberg mask that ended in a thankfully offscreen love scene. This review called it “a surrealistic and very weird love-making scene!”, which in my opinion, is one hell of an understatement. Though the morning after bit cracked me up. Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Anita Yuen knocked that one out of the park. I love those three actors (and Carina Lau, who made a couple of brief but memorable appearances). I also love a bunch of other things about the movie, which I’ll list now.
*The awards shows fiasco from the beginning to the when Wing “outs” Sam had me howling. I love Anita Yuen so much. She hit all the right comedic notes, and Leslie’s reactions cracks me up each time I see it (yes, I rewound that scene over and over again. Leslie’s face is priceless)
*The scene where Sam explains about liking big breasts but that he also likes Wing’s smaller ones. It was sweet and made sweeter because it was so utterly believable. I can totally see a guy trying to assuage his girlfriend’s insecurities like that, and succeeding.
*The look on Wing’s face when she saw Fan Fan’s unmentionables. I am trying to figure out how I went so long without knowing who Anita Yuen was. She’s convincing as a straight woman in love with a man, a confused woman in love with another woman, and a male creature who’s slightly androgynous.
*Speaking of androgyny, I LOVELOVELOVE the idea that Fan Fan brought “androgyny to Hong Kong pop culture” and Wing was adding to that phenomenon. It was a nice play on the fact that both Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung (whose affinity for men was one of Hong Kong’s worst kept secrets – his relationship with his boyfriend Daffy Tong had gone on for more than 10 years) had helped blurred the lines of gender and sexuality during their musical careers.
*When Sam and Fan Fan got stuck in the elevator. I adore the chemistry between Leslie and Anita Mui both onscreen and offscreen (they did quite a few concerts together and totally fanserviced it up) and it was such a delight for me to see them dancing together. I miss them so much.
*Wing tallying up who came to her mind more when she closed her eyes, Sam or Fan Fan.
*Wing playing Scarlett and Fan Fan playing Rhett on some cross-dressing revision of “Gone with the Wind.” Complete with swelling background music. That bloody killed me.
*Any time Leslie Cheung smirked. Good god, the man was hot.
*I love how they played on Anita Mui’s name, as Fan Fan’s Chinese name is a backwards variation on Anita’s Chinese name. Anita Mui basically played herself in this movie, but wow, the warmth and groundedness she brought to that role. The way she comforts and reassures Wing after they had slept together and realized it wasn’t meant to be makes me fall in love her each time I see it (yes, another scene I rewound over and over again.) And then the scene after that cracks me up. It was so perfectly played out.
*The last conversation Sam had with his ex Rose. There was a very nice maturity to it that probably doesn’t exist between exes in real life, but whatever. I love how they came together and were able to talk like good friends. The ruefulness around the line, “I’m always in a bad mood” spoke volumes about how well they knew each other.
*The dancing renovators ^__^
Yeah, I definitely love the good things about the movie way more than I was annoyed with the lesser stuff. I won’t say that I recommend it, but I will say that I did love the movie overall, and more importantly, it helped me articulate a lot of things I wanted to say about homosexuality but couldn't find a proper context to say them.
For anyone who's interested, an article from the Bright Lights Film Journal about the genderbendering in the movies.
I wrote the following review on my bus ride home yesterday after seeing Who’s the woman, who’s the man? for the first time. I've since seen it again, and while I maintain the flaws of the movie are still as annoying as the first time I saw them, the movie is FAR FAR better the second time around. In my opinion, it and its predecessor "He's a woman, she's a man", are two of the best movies out about homosexuality, and they're definitely now my favorite movies on the topic, especially “Who’s the woman, who’s the man?" when it comes to lesbianism. Yes, I am well aware that Wing ends up with her boyfriend, not Fan Fan, but the exploration of her feelings for another woman were done with deft sensitivity, and I appreciated the fact that the movie was more about sexual and personal confusion than putting a label of one's sexuality orientation, admittedly, because I'm confused as fuck over my own sexual preference.
Before I confuse people more, here's the review I wrote yesterday, complete with recaps this time (heh) and lj-cut for length. A brief rant about the lack of good lesbian storyline in entertainment kind of jumped out during the writing of it. I also added more to the "Things I love about the movie" list at the end after seeing it a second time today. There was a lot of little bits of thoughtfulness and "just plain human being moments" that I missed the first time time around. Mostly, I love this movie, and the original, because they're a rarity in today's cinema: genuinely sweet movies on a contraversial topic, with not a bad bone in their bodies. Other than Pixar, it's been a long time since I've seen a good movie that was sweet, and even longer since I've seen an adult one.
I’m still trying to get my thoughts around “Who’s the woman, who’s the man?”, the sequel to very awesome “He’s a woman, she’s a man” that I had just raved about. Like most Hong Kong sequels, it suffers an enormous amount of irritating flaws and some bad writing and is nowhere as good as the original, but unlike most Hong Kong sequels, it doesn’t destroy the magic of the original and actually has a few good merits. Overall, I liked it a lot. Don’t think I’ll recommend it though (not that I recommend Hong Kong movies to anyone who hasn’t grown up with them, but “He’s a woman, she’s a man” was a movie that a crowd used to Hollywood movies could enjoy, and I was hoping, “Who’s the woman, who’s the man” would be one as well.)
So, recaps, seeing how I was too over-the-moon with teenage glee about the “He’s a woman, she’s a man” to provide one. That movie started out with a girl named Wing (Anita Yuen), who wants to meet her music idols Rose (Carina Lau) and Sam (Leslie Cheung). Sam is auditioning male singers in an early Hong Kong version of “American Idol” and Wing disguises herself as a man to meet her stars. She gets chosen, and the story goes from there with all sorts of complications arising from everyone thinking that Wing is male and gay, especially when she and Sam start to fall in love. “He’s a woman, she’s a man” was a thoughtful, heartfelt look at Sam’s attraction to what he believed was another man, and I love how the movie handled that angle.
“Who’s the woman, who’s the man?” is the flip of the first movie, with Wing discovering her attraction to another woman, Fan Fan (Anita Mui.) The good news is that the lesbian angle was done with the same sensitivity and maturity that the gay angle was done in the previous movie. The bad news is that the flaws found in the rest of the movie distracts and takes away from it and the storyline of Wing’s new relationship with Sam. It’s rather frustrating because it’s one of the few movies in any language that I’ve seen tackle the lesbian issue with anything resembling warmth and heart, and a chemistry that feels real instead of tacked on.
And here I go into a slightly off topic rant here about the lack of good lesbian storylines: I’m a huge fan of the “Oh lesbians, aren’t they hot!” mentality as much as the next straight guy – possibly more – but I’m frustrated at the lack of flesh-and-blood couples that are female/female. There’s so many well done m/m stories and romance out there, and m/m OTP, but does anyone really have a f/f OTP? The only ones I have is Tung/Hong from So Close and Yomiko/Nancy from the Read or Die OVA series. Wing/Fan Fan wouldn’t work since their relationship was more of an experience that Wing matures through and figures out how she really feels about Sam, and as unPoliticalCorrect as having a girl discover how she and her boyfriend fit in her life through another woman is by North American standards, it works damn well here, mostly because the chemistry is believable and the heart is in the right place. It’s also the closest thing I can think of that’s an actual lesbian romance, which is great for the movie and why I like it so much, but sad to think of in terms of queer entertainment. Why can’t there be more lesbian romances? Not couples who are hot and forbidden, or couples who fascinate their viewers because they're both females, or couples who you want to see together but they never get there except maybe a proxy kiss... but a real romantic couple where the two just happen to be female.
(Yes, I know, “Saving Face”, which was an excellent movie about being Chinese-American lesbians – why do Chinese people make such good lesbian flicks? – but it lacked a naturalness that I believe all good romances should have and that’s why Wilheima/Vivienne are not on my OTP list, though I hearts them to bits.)
Back to the movie. Its flaws: The problems Sam and Wing have when they start to live together makes no sense to me, because they had been living together in the previous movie, just Sam thought Wing was a guy. Wing seemed out of character for the first bit and there were some weird developments that didn’t make sense with what had happened in the last movie. The whole storyline with Fish (Wing’s friend who for some reason that made no goddamn sense moves in with Sam and Wing) chasing after the rollerblading lesbian throughout the whole movie irritated me, and a certain ending development made me want to hit someone. I think I would have recommended with all the other flaws had it not been for that ending development. Okay, it also would have been hard to recommend a movie with scene that involved a Woody Allen and a Whoopi Goldberg mask that ended in a thankfully offscreen love scene. This review called it “a surrealistic and very weird love-making scene!”, which in my opinion, is one hell of an understatement. Though the morning after bit cracked me up. Leslie Cheung, Anita Mui, and Anita Yuen knocked that one out of the park. I love those three actors (and Carina Lau, who made a couple of brief but memorable appearances). I also love a bunch of other things about the movie, which I’ll list now.
*The awards shows fiasco from the beginning to the when Wing “outs” Sam had me howling. I love Anita Yuen so much. She hit all the right comedic notes, and Leslie’s reactions cracks me up each time I see it (yes, I rewound that scene over and over again. Leslie’s face is priceless)
*The scene where Sam explains about liking big breasts but that he also likes Wing’s smaller ones. It was sweet and made sweeter because it was so utterly believable. I can totally see a guy trying to assuage his girlfriend’s insecurities like that, and succeeding.
*The look on Wing’s face when she saw Fan Fan’s unmentionables. I am trying to figure out how I went so long without knowing who Anita Yuen was. She’s convincing as a straight woman in love with a man, a confused woman in love with another woman, and a male creature who’s slightly androgynous.
*Speaking of androgyny, I LOVELOVELOVE the idea that Fan Fan brought “androgyny to Hong Kong pop culture” and Wing was adding to that phenomenon. It was a nice play on the fact that both Anita Mui and Leslie Cheung (whose affinity for men was one of Hong Kong’s worst kept secrets – his relationship with his boyfriend Daffy Tong had gone on for more than 10 years) had helped blurred the lines of gender and sexuality during their musical careers.
*When Sam and Fan Fan got stuck in the elevator. I adore the chemistry between Leslie and Anita Mui both onscreen and offscreen (they did quite a few concerts together and totally fanserviced it up) and it was such a delight for me to see them dancing together. I miss them so much.
*Wing tallying up who came to her mind more when she closed her eyes, Sam or Fan Fan.
*Wing playing Scarlett and Fan Fan playing Rhett on some cross-dressing revision of “Gone with the Wind.” Complete with swelling background music. That bloody killed me.
*Any time Leslie Cheung smirked. Good god, the man was hot.
*I love how they played on Anita Mui’s name, as Fan Fan’s Chinese name is a backwards variation on Anita’s Chinese name. Anita Mui basically played herself in this movie, but wow, the warmth and groundedness she brought to that role. The way she comforts and reassures Wing after they had slept together and realized it wasn’t meant to be makes me fall in love her each time I see it (yes, another scene I rewound over and over again.) And then the scene after that cracks me up. It was so perfectly played out.
*The last conversation Sam had with his ex Rose. There was a very nice maturity to it that probably doesn’t exist between exes in real life, but whatever. I love how they came together and were able to talk like good friends. The ruefulness around the line, “I’m always in a bad mood” spoke volumes about how well they knew each other.
*The dancing renovators ^__^
Yeah, I definitely love the good things about the movie way more than I was annoyed with the lesser stuff. I won’t say that I recommend it, but I will say that I did love the movie overall, and more importantly, it helped me articulate a lot of things I wanted to say about homosexuality but couldn't find a proper context to say them.
For anyone who's interested, an article from the Bright Lights Film Journal about the genderbendering in the movies.
