Wonder Women

Year:2007
Director:Barbara Wong Chun-Chun
Cast:Gigi Leung Wing-Kei, Fiona Sit Hoi-Kei, George Lam Chi-Cheung, Kevin Cheng Ka-Wing, Nie Yuan, Hui Siu-Hung, Hins Cheung King-Hin, Siu Yee, Raymond Wong Bak-Ming, Hacken Lee Hak-Ken
Description:
Gigi
Leung returns to the big screen for Wonder Women,
yet another Hong Kong film celebrating the 10th Anniversary
of the Hong Kong Handover. Sadly, it's also the worst
of the bunch. Leung is Joy Shing, who's just been
promoted to Chief Financial Officer of a successful
company. Unfortunately, Joy only got the position
after her husband, To Lam , was ousted
as CEO on the eve of the Hong Kong Handover. To's
replacement is Ching Bit-Chung , a righteous
but also pragmatic fellow with Mainland ties, who
takes a shine to Joy's obvious physical charms. Joy
is initially oblivious of his attentions, however,
and still loves To, who begins a disturbing spiral
into self-pity following his firing. Feeling like
a bit of a loser, he spends most of his time in Singapore
trying to get back on his feet, while Joy remains
back in Hong Kong with their infant son Lok.
Unfortunately, things
for Joy's family get much worse, and everything is
tied into the most notorious of events in the past
ten years of Hong Kong history. First, Joy is conned
into overpaying for a flat by Uncle Nine ,
who uses all his profits for massive real estate speculation.
With the real estate crash just around the corner,
that qualifies as Ominous Foreshadowing #1. Ominous
Foreshadowing #2 involves To, who begins to play the
stock market fast and loose, meaning he's about to
run into the upcoming Asian Financial Crisis. Director
Barbara Wong
basically sets her ducks in a row before pulling the
trigger, using the misfortunes of numerous characters
to deliver a blow-by-blow parade of Hong Kong's recent
financial and social maladies. People driven to bankruptcy?
Check. Rising unemployment? Check. Death by charcoal
suicide? Check. Crappy office politics? Check. SARS?
Check. All these problems and more pop up during Wonder
Women's running time, and they all directly affect
Joy. How will this upright working woman survive Hong
Kong's slings and arrows?
The answer: with dignity,
and perhaps more manufactured cinema twists than any
film should have. Wonder Women takes ten years
of trying hardships and basically loads them onto
Gigi Leung's shoulders. Joy gets the Hong Kong hardship
playbook thrown at her, such that each and every one
of Hong Kong's recent problems affects her directly.
This is in contrast to the other Handover anniversary
films, Mr. Cinema and Hooked on You,
which only indirectly dealt with historical issues,
if not simply ignoring them. Wonder Women tackles
the toughest of topics head on, so when the Asian
Financial Crisis hits, we see someone dear to Joy
go bankrupt. When SARS arrives, someone connected
to Joy goes to the hospital. People may even die because
hey, people died in real life. Wonder Women
is unflinching in the drama that it brings to the
screen, an obviously potent dramatic tactic as it
basically forces the Hong Kong audience to watch and
not be affected by stuff they feared as a part of
their every day lives. The other films may have skirted
around the tough issues, but not Wonder Women.
The filmmakers' intentions here are admirable.
However, the execution
sinks this one. Hard. Hong Kong Cinema could have
gone three-for-three with its Handover anniversary
films, as both Mr. Cinema and Hooked on
You were quality films. Though it tries to be
quality, Wonder Women is ultimately not very
good, and in fact could be seen as alarmingly bad,
with awkwardly staged drama, inconsistent acting,
and a self-importance that virtually dares the audience
not to be affected by what they see. Many tragic events
are presented to the audience, and on paper they affect.
On screen? Well, many people may find themselves touched
by what happens, as the blatant manipulation on display
in Wonder Women is not without its power. However,
that power is ill-advised and incredibly transparent,
and will likely not fool discerning filmgoers who
expect more than the soap-opera plotting, countless
contrivances, and ham-handed direction foisted upon
them here.
The film possesses some
potent sequences, but other parts feel conspicuously
light, like a condensed TVB drama or maybe just another
one of those umpteen youth romance films. Fiona Sit
shows up as Joy's assistant Tung, who takes up tons
of screentime with girlish mugging and a storyline
that's less "wonder woman" than it is "partially
competent girl". She has an entertaining, though
questionably relevant subplot involving a crappy boyfriend
who sells her fake fashion items. Meanwhile, an honest,
upright flower shop salesperson pines
for her day and night, and she manages to ignore his
attentions for a good six years. Eventually, she
gives him a chance, but this dramatic development
occurs after we've seen people die due to suicide,
SARS, and even emotional breakdowns. We're also given
a virtual Powerpoint presentation on Hong Kong's financial
ups and downs, complete with onscreen graphics and
characters reacting to each stock market shift like
they're placing bets at the jockey club. But wait,
now it's off to a fashion show with Fiona Sit in green
hair! Wonder Women is horribly edited; it doesn't
segue from emotion to emotion effectively, and instead
shifts abruptly. Sometimes, the onset of tragedy may
even trigger laughs. This is probably not what the
filmmakers had in mind.
Barbara Wong has previously
shown a talent for character and emotion, but for
some reason that doesn't come through here. Joy is
a character that's hard to pin down; she behaves inconsistently,
and only achieves sympathy because so much terrible
stuff is happening to her. Leung's acting isn't much
help either; she's largely effective, but sometimes
it's hard to tell if she's in a serious drama or a
light comedy, and when she fails to convince, the
effect can be egregious. The fault here may be the
script and direction, which seems to put actors out
on a limb without a net to save them. The drama is
awkward, some characters never gain sympathy, and
many of the plot twists are incredibly predictable.
In Wonder Women, it always feels like somebody
is pulling the strings, be it the director, the actors,
or the screenwriters. The chintzy music score - which
alternates between tinkly techno, maudlin string arrangements,
and power ballad samples - seals the deal: this is
an overcooked motion picture that, despite its reflection
of reality, doesn't feel real at all.
Wonder Women
eventually reaches a point where things seem to hit
rock bottom, but like Hong Kong's falling and rising
fortunes, the characters get their chance at redemption.
And that redemption involves...money! Yep, the dollar
is the driving force here, with characters being rewarded
for their good moral character with a nice financial
windfall. That's when we get the product placement.
Osim, a popular brand for massage products in Hong
Kong, gets what amounts to massive commercial starring
Gigi Leung and Fiona Sit. Not to spoil the film or
anything, but somebody opens a shop and it's a great
success. Then they open up shop number two, three,
and twenty-nine. And each store has a nice big Osim
sign and products strewn about. This is after an extended
plug for a brand of canned tea, and plenty of shots
of Fiona Sit wearing fake Christian Dior - which she's
punished for with the disapproving stares of the salespeople
at the real Christian Dior store. Brand names are
a part of real life, so perhaps the overload of logos
adds to the reality in the film. But any informed
audience member must know that product sponsorships
were going on behind the scenes, so in the end it's
just another fake thing to add to a film that already
feels incredibly fake. What's real? Well, the history
and events here really happened, and they were as
dramatic and sometimes tragic as presented in the
film. But those stories could also be found in the
newspaper, and probably without the distracting music,
inconsistent acting, and canned melodrama that make
Wonder Women the disappointment that it is.