4.0 out of 5 stars
Guilty Pleasure, October 14, 2010
This review is from: 2 Young (DVD)
2 Young
Dir Derek Yee, Hong Kong, 2005.
Guilty Pleasure 4*
This film, for me, was quite uneven, often threatening to descend into stereotype and terminal cutesiness, but then pulling away from the pitfalls just in time. So I vacillated between 3 and 4 *'s, but am giving it 4 because, with some reservations, I would recommend it. In the end, it is saved by good performances, not only by the young stars but the very experienced actors who play their parents. Eric Tsang (whom IMDB lists with 191 films made!) has an especially notable comic turn as Fu's dad. Also good are "Aunt and Uncle" Liu, the rich family's driver and maid. Jaycee Fong is likeable, if not remarkable, and Fiona Sit, in one of her first roles, is not only dang cute but has believable grit that gives us some hope at the end.
Jaycee Fong (aka Jaycee Chan Jo-Ming, son of Jackie Chan) is Ka-Fu, a working class 18 year old living in public housing and having some trouble at school, as we later find out. He and a couple of buddies are hanging out when a fancy girls' school lets out, and Fu shows them the girl who has caught his eye, the pretty Yeuk-Nam (pop singer Fiona Sit Ho-Kei), whom he is too shy to actually approach. His friends' horsing around draws her eye -- and that of the stern school mistress. The boys are forced to flee, but the connection is made and Fu and Nam "meet cute" over the next encounter or two, culminating in a school dance which Nam encourages Fu to crash in a hilarious sequence; after the party, Fu goes home with Nam, to her otherwise solitary 16th birthday party (her parents, for the 3rd year in a row, have missed her birthday) The budding romance is set off by the family lives of the two: Fu's bus driver father and (sales clerk?) mother, argumentative but loving, in a crowded but warm small flat; and Nam's lawyer parents, who spoil but control her, when not too busy with work and international travel, in their rich but sterile mansion.
The first half of the film, as the relation between Fu and Nam blooms, and their family lives are exposited, is to me the better half. There are plenty of laugh-out-loud moments, both slapstick (though some is overdone) and more subtle humor. Nam is clearly in the driver's seat, the more socially assured and well versed in passive agressive control (on the model of her father's controlling ways?), maybe the one more in love, and jealous of Fu's warm family and the "exotic delicacies" she has never had such as fish balls. Fu is a bit overwhelmed, and likewise jealous of what he sees as her easy life of wealth. They go on an overnight campout on New Year's (with her parents once again absent), and though the details and even the fact are left to our imagination, the seemingly inevitable happens.
A few weeks later, Nam realizes ... whoops. None of the parents are happy, but Nam's father is furious -- this is destroying all his careful plans for her success -- and confines her to the house. But she makes her escape, and she and Fu set off on their own, a bit more daunting when they realize Daddy has cancelled her accounts. They camp out in an abandoned village one of Fu's friends knows about (?this seems a bit unreal, so near HK; and why does it still have electricity and running water?), and by fishing, digging yams, and the odd bit of work that Fu can scrounge, make it through the next months, one moment a lovely idyll, the next argument and despair and cold shoulders in bed. Then the real world -- in the form of parents and hospitals and cops -- intrudes again, and after trials and tribulations .. etc. etc. ... wends its way ... etc. etc. ... to a happy ending (though quoting statistics on breakup of teen relationships). Much of this latter part seems either rote, on autopilot, or just confusing (the legal details in particular), though they may play better in HK than this side of the puddle.
DVD features. There is an alternate Mandarin soundtrack if you care, and an English language commentary with Jaycee Fong and a fan club member. The commentary is pretty useless, since they don't talk much about the film per se and (even though it is in English) don't give any of the background that might be useful for those of us not familiar with Hong Kong. A "Making Of" featurette is more useful for understanding the background and perspective of the film. There's also some of the usual minor stuff, a trailer, deleted scenes (worth watching), outtakes, etc. One nuisance is that the disc forces you to watch, or skip through, several previews before getting to the menu; you can't even use the menu button, but must hit skip, I think 6 or 8 times.
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