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SYNOPSIS:
27-year old Miu (Miriam Yeung) starts working as a fishmonger
at Fortune Market to pay off her fathers' debts. She hopes
to clear them before she turns 30, leave the wet market and
find a man worthy of her. She is at loggerheads with Mr Fish
(Eason Chan) from a stall at the Market and a fierce battle
of survival is unleashed. However, the two are forced to collaborate
together when the existence of Fortune Market is jeopardized
by the emergence of mega supermarkets. As time goes by, they
start to develop feelings for each other, but Miu is not ready
to embrace her feelings...
MOVIE REVIEW
As
I watched this Hong Kong production, I was thinking to myself:
What made this movie so different from the usual romantic
fare out there that my fellow columnist loves it so much?
After all, I had been looking forward to this fluffy flick
after his raving
review a few months ago.
As
the 97-minute movie progresses, I couldn’t fathom what
made the picture so unique – the plot was predictably
romantic (from its conventional setup between the two leads
to their initial detest for each other and the eventual mutual
attraction), the performances were typically entertaining
(although the cast list is rather impressive by an average
movie’s standards) and the production values were nothing
surprising (the novelty of a movie taking place in a wet market
could only amuse me for so long).
But
as the movie comes to a close, the final scene between leads
Miriam Yeung (Drink Drank Drunk,
Sound of Colors) and Eason Chan (Brothers,
Enter the Phoenix) struck me to how bittersweet love in real
life can be. Without giving away the ending of the movie,
all I’m saying is that love in real life isn’t
always a bed of roses as you’ve seen in most movies.
And
before this review becomes a whining blog entry about my views
on love, it shall go on to commend director Lau Wing-cheong’s
(2 Become 1,
Running Out of Time 2) comfortable and steady approach to
making this movie. With Johnnie To’s backup as the movie’s
producer, Lau manages to craft a sweet tale about love and
longing in a modern time like this.
The
story sees Yeung and Chan’s situational collaboration
when the market they work in is forced to close. Although
the two hate each other’s guts at first, one can expect
feelings to develop and love to blossom as the duo spend more
time together.
Other
than Yeung and Chan’s pleasing performances, expect
to see familiar faces like Feng Shui-Fan, Jo Kuk, Lam Ka Tung,
Wong You-Nam and Carl Ng in supporting roles and cameos. The
cast sure looked like they had fun shooting this ensemble
piece celebrating the good old times of happy relationships
before technology seeped into our everyday lives, and the
enjoyment has successfully infected the grouchy me.
SPECIAL
FEATURES :
This Code 3 DVD contains only a Trailer for the movie.
AUDIO/VISUAL:
The disc’s visual transfer manages to make the wet market
look appealing, while the audio is presented in Mandarin.
What a shame we couldn’t hear the soundtrack in its
original Cantonese version.
MOVIE RATING:
DVD
RATING :
Review
by John Li
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