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情人的眼淚 (1996)
Lover's Tears


Reviewed by: shelly
Date: 12/09/1999

A limp romantic tear-jerker. When husband Derek Yee is caught in ashoot out, and lapses into interminable coma, nobley suffering wife Carman Lee is forced to cope with strained loyalties, grief, loneliness, temptation. We're in Sylvia Chang territory: as director/writer, _she_ can find a fresh angle in a story like this, give it a liberal-feminist twist, and inspire lifelike performances from her excellent casts. Lee Kwok-Lap doesn't. Instead, we get a cliche-ridden script and soggy direction. Carman Lee can't carry this film: you can read a kind of static, introverted sadness in her face, but not much more. Derek Yee's performance (pre-coma) is strictly boilerplate. Tou Chung-Wah is better: his brooding, troubled ex-cop has real intensity; he manages to get some sort of substantive characterization to radiate from his very photogenic posing. And Pauline Suen's zesty, effervescent sister does a lot with a small role. A couple of interesting ultra-slo-motion scenes enliven the otherwise flat cinematography. A disappointment from this director, after his high-energy, brilliantly acted, original, and very sharp SHANGHAI FEVER (1994).

Reviewer Score: 6

Reviewed by: pablo
Date: 12/09/1999

Stray gunfire puts prosperous architect Kam Ming Sang into a coma, leaving his new wife Ching to pick up the pieces. Lam Long, who is indirectly responsible for the tragedy, retires from the police force to deal with his feelings of guilt. This film makes a real attempt to look at the impact of the incident on everyone involved, and rarely sinks into melodrama. Carman raises her acting a notch, but her performance is still the weakest of the major roles. Pauline nearly steals the show with her energetic acting at the start of the film, before disappearing until the end of the film. Not a groundbreaking film, but quite entertaining.