ANNA MAGDALENA (1998)

Starring: Aaron Kwok, Takeshi Kaneshiro, Kelly Chan, Jacky Cheung, Eric Tsang, Leslie Cheung, Anita Yuen

Yau Muk Yan (Aaron Kwok) is a wandering womaniser, going from place to place, without ever holding down one relationship. After a break-up with another girlfriend, he moves into the flat of a complete stranger, Chan Kar Fu (Kaneshiro), who later becomes friends with this rogue.

A woman by the name of Mok Man Yee (Kelly Chan) moves in to a flat above them, and at first, Yau and Mok are like sworn enemies, but they gradually warm to each other, to the point that Yau moves in to live with her. All this time, Chan Kar Fu is secretly in love with Mok, and he writes a book to tell the world how he feels about her.

Kelly Chan has starred in few movies throughout her career as she predominately focused on her singing. And when she does find the time to make a movie, it usually ends up as a romantic drama full of deep meaning. Anna Magdalena is one such movie, and it is one hell of an abstract narrative trying to be too clever for its own good.

The three way relationship between Yau, Mok and Chan is the foundation of the plot, with equal time given to all three characters. Yau is by far the most entertaining of the three, and you could not but grin at his ridiculous antics, especially his early rantings at Mok. But deep down, he is emotionally unstable, although he tries hard not to show it, which is the main reason why he fails to have a fruitful and lasting relationship with any woman.

Mok and Chan are opposites of Yau, and they would ideally be a perfect couple, but Mok's attraction to Yau strikes a thorn into Chan's heart. He later writes a book about how much he loves her, which is acted out by Kelly Chan and Kaneshiro in different roles at the end of the film, in a very Tim Burton-esque bizarre landscape. It totally defies convention, and takes time to comprehend. Others would just switch off and scatch their heads in bewilderment.

The difficult part is trying to understand what message the filmmakers are trying to convey. Nothing really new is covered about romance, and most of the predicaments are obvious to the eye, even the plot is predictable (besides the bizzare ending).

Leslie Cheung and Anita Yuen (of He's a Man, She's a Woman fame) gets an extended cameo role in the film, but is largely unused, and serves no purpose to the overall plot. A shame really, as the beginning had so much promise.

RATING

7 / 10