Reviewed by: dleedlee
Date: 08/11/2004
Everybody, lets a go-go !
The movie opens promisingly enough with a cat fight on the beach between Suet (Nancy Sit Ka Yin), a snack seller on the beach, and Sai, a spoiled rich girl (Lydia Shum), over Sais cousin Leung (Kenneth Tsang). From there, it resorts to standard teen romance movie formula with lots of a go-go music and dancing. Theres a wonderful rendition of The Rolling Stones' (Cant Get No) Satisfaction on sax and various surf rock guitar music. Quentin Tarantino would wet himself.
I suppose the film is meant to nominally address the Ah Fei phenomena and the troubled youth but its not a very realistic portrayal. Initially, we see Suet selling sodas in a shack on the beach (theres a brief moment when Leung buys a soda from Suet that reminded me of the scene between Maggie and Leslie in Days of Being Wild), but later we see her living with her sister and young aunt (Ho Lan) in a lavish house. The aunt warns Suet and her sister Bing about drinking alcohol when they are invited to Leungs birthday party at Sais house. The most serious the movie gets is when, at another birthday party, this time at night on the beach, under orders from Sai, two pals lure Suet away from the crowd and start to assault/rape her before Leung comes to her rescue. Later, one of her pals gives Suet an exploding bouquet of flowers!
Besides Sai, her parents (Ko Lo Chuen and Ma Siu Ying) want Leung to marry their daughter. Sai and her gang of pals thwart the romance between Leung and Suet. Sai eventually repents her bad treatment and cedes Leung to Suet recognizing their true love just in time for the happing ending. Theres also a side story about Suets young aunt who was mistreated in the past, loses a true love and then re-meets him when he turns out to be a driver (Yue Ming) for one of Leungs pals.
Ive come to the opinion that as cute as Nancy Sit is, she doesnt have enough presence to carry a film on her own. She does get to show off her singing and dancing talents in a stage medley at the end of the movie. Nancy sings a duet with Kenneth Tsang clad in Indonesian costume, then performs a modern dance with him and finally, in Japanese kimono sings a rendition from Madame Butterfly.
Non-essential.
Reviewer Score: 6
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