Chinese Box . Tucson Weekly . 07-13-98

Chinese Box

DIRECTED BY: Wayne Wang

REVIEWED: 07-13-98

Wayne Wang, who directed Smoke, has managed to make an almost entirely unintelligible movie about...it's hard to say, exactly. It's kind of about the transfer of Hong Kong to the Chinese, and it's sort of about a journalist, John (Jeremy Irons), who rather conveniently comes down with a bad case of incurable leukemia that has him scheduled to die at the same moment the British are scheduled to pull out. John is an odd fellow, an antihero from the old school--macho, self-obsessed, frequently drunk. As soon as he's diagnosed with cancer, he runs out and begins to stalk a young girl (the adorable Maggie Cheung) with a video camera. Then he goes back to his apartment, where he and his buddy Jim (Ruben Blades), another middle-aged ex-patriot, obsessively ruminate over her image. Despite his fixation with the girl, John is hopelessly in love with Vivian (Gong Li). But Vivian loves Chang (Michael Hui), who refuses to marry her, because she was once a prostitute. Watching these two blowsy, middle-aged actors compete for the favors of Gong Li, indisputably one of the most beautiful women in the world, is like watching two bulldogs fight over an orchid. The melodrama heats up even more as John, increasingly fascinated and repelled by Vivian's disreputable past, takes a tour of Hong Kong's seedier sex dives. It's not long before the whole thing degenerates into a pretentious version of Showgirls, only more misogynistic. Sharing the blame for this travesty are co-writers Jean-Claude Carriere, Larry Gross and the ever-annoying Paul Theroux.

--Richter

Full Length Reviews
Chinese Box
Chinese Box

Capsule Reviews
Chinese Box

Other Films by Wayne Wang
Anywhere But Here
Smoke

Film Vault Suggested Links
Mrs. Brown
Sense and Sensibility
Sabrina

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